Hughes,  Thomas,  1850- 


A  boy's  experience 
the  Civil  War, 
1860-1865 


in 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


ENDOWED  BY  THE 

DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 

SOCIETIES 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/boysexperienceinOOhugh 


\lOfoL, 


K 


A    BOY'S    EXPERIENCE 

IN   THE 
CIVIL    WAR    1860-1865 

Presented   to 

y       ^ 

With    compliments    of  ■"•  f         <  > > 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  CongTess  in  the  year  1904  by  Thomas    Hughes,  the 
author,   in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


INIVERSTTY  OF  NOfTOH  CAROLINA 
PHLHiLL 


\ 


During  tbe  Civil  Wax. 

My  father,  a  skillful  physician  by  profession,  was  by 
taste  and  inclination  a  controversal  writer,  a  contributor 
to  the  newspapers,  mixing  up  in  the  stir  of  the  times. 
Before  the  Civil  War  his  energy  was  devoted  to  a  large 
and  lucrative  practice  coupled  with  activities,  social  and 
political.  At  the  opening  of  the  -struggle  between  the 
North  and  South  his  sympathies  and  associations  ardently 
enlisted  him  in  the  fortunes  of  his  native  State,  and  he 
furthered  by  writing  and  personal  work  the  adoption  of 
the  ordinance  of  secession  which  had  been  referred  by  the 
State  Convention  at  Eichmond  to  the  Citizens  of  Virginia 
to  adopt  or  reject.  When  the  State  seceded  his  ardent 
advocacy  of  the  Southern  cause  and  his  labor  in  that  be- 
half quickly  brought  him  to  the  point  of  either  taking  the 
oath  of  allegiance  as  a  loyal  citizen  of  the  United  States 
or  submitting  to  imprisonment.  He  declined  the  oath  and 
was  sent  as  a  political  prisoner  in  the  spring  of  1862  to 
Camp  Chase  near  Columbus,  Ohio,  where  he  remained 
for  nine  months,  when  a  special  exchange  was  secured  for 
him.  This  latter  event  he  owed  to  a  personal  circumstance, 
one  of  those  matters  he  usually  evidenced  an  aptitude  to 
turn  to  account.  It  occurred  thus:  one  day  a  number  of 
prisoners  recently  captured  were  brought  in.  and  he  learned 
that  shortly  before ,  the  command  to  which  they  had  belonged 
had  taken  a  number  of  Union  prisoners,  and  among  them 
a  brother  of  Dr.  Pancost  of  Philadelphia.  My  father  who 
had  pursued  his  medical  studies  at  Philadelphia  and  had 
been  a  student  under  Dr.  Pancost  at  the  Jefferson  Medi- 
cal College  wrote  to  his  former  instructor,  telling  him  of 
his  brother's  capture  and  asking  him  to  secure  a  special 
exchange  of  my  father  for  his  brother.  This  he  accom- 
plished and  through  friends  my  father  was  extended  per- 


H   tlfl  54452S 


mission  to  have  his  wife  and  three  of  his  children  accom- 
pany him  by  flag  of  truce  through  the  lines  to  Richmond. 
Ample  time  was  allowed  him  to  arrange  his  affairs  for  this 
and  he  was  further  permitted  to  take  unlimited  baggage. 
Our  route  was  to  Baltimore,  to  Fortress  Monroe,  to  City 
Point,  Petersburg  and  Richmond.  Baltimore  was  reached 
between  three  and  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  upon 
the  recommendation  of  a  fellow  passenger  we  sought 
quarters  at  the  Eutaw  House.  This  hotel,  then  as  now 
at  the  northwest  corner  of  Eutaw  and  Baltimore  Streets, 
was  found  crowded  and  we  located  in  the  parlor  until  later 
in  the  day  a  room  was  assigned  us  overlooking  the  court 
on  Eutaw  Street.  A  circumstance  to  impress  was  the 
crowded  condition  of  the  pavement  extending  from  Eutaw 
Street  to  Calvert  far  in  excess  of  what  now  exists  after  the 
lapse  of  over  forty  years,  thus  indicating  the  inrush  here 
as  the  border  city  of  the  Civil  War.  The  day  our  trunks 
were  to  be  examined  Major  Constable,  the  provost  marshall 
of  the  city  was  a  guest  at  a  dinner  party  given  by  my 
father  at  Barnmn's  Hotel  to  which  latter  we  had  immedi- 
ately removed,  being  told  by  our  Baltimore  friends  that 
the  Eutaw  House  was  a  hotel  patronized  by  officers  of  the 
Northern  army,  whereas  Barnum's  was  a  Southern  Hotel. 
On  the  day  succeeding  the  search  of  our  baggage  we  left  our 
hotel  where  we  had  remained  about  two  weeks  preparing 
for  the  trip  South,  and  were  driven  in  a  carnage  to  the 
wharf  of  the  boat  for  Fortress  Monroe.  Some  informality 
attending  the  baggage  required  us  to  return  until  the  suc- 
ceeding day.  It  appears  that  some  official  undertook  to 
claim  the  baggage  had  not  been  examined,  notwithstanding 
the  red  connecting  tape  with  the  seal  of  the  provost  mar- 
sh all's  ring  in  red  wax  at  each  end  and  it  became  neces- 
sary to  have  Major  Constable  straighten  out  the  matter, 
which  fixed  us  to  leave  the  next  evening.  One  of  those 
heavy  storms  that  occur  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  with  an 
alarm  of  fire  on  the  boat  were  incidents  of  the  trip,  and 
General  George  H.  Thomas  of  the  Union  Army  who  was 


a  passenger  and  my  father  became  acquainted  with  the 
result  that  the  former's  influence  was  utilized  to  secure 
more  pleasant  accommodations  on  the  flag  of  truce  boat. 
The  boats  composing  the  flag  of  truce  were  three  in  num- 
ber with  only  one,  that  carrying  our  family,  carrying 
prisoners,  all  of  whom  were  invalids,  most  of  them  suffer- 
ing from  wounds,  some  of  them  of  a  most  frightful  char- 
acter. It  seems  unaccountable  that  those  men  in  their 
condition  should  have  been  sent  on  a  trip  to  occupy  two 
days  and  two  nights  without  either  surgeon  or  nurses. 
My  father  was  called  upon  to  dress  the  wounds  of  several, 
one  of  whom  markedly  attracted  my  attention  by  the  fact 
that  his  entire  back  seemed  to  have  been  shot  away. 
Another,  a  young  man  about  nineteen  had  his  right  arm  and 
hand  paralyzed.  There  were  perhaps  a  hundred  prisoners, 
all  invalids.  "We  started  from  Fortress  Monroe  in  the  morn- 
ing and  about  dark  reached  Harrison's  Landing  where  we 
anchored  for  the  night,  it  being  inexpedient  to  travel  ex- 
cept by  day  when  our  mission  as  a  flag  of  truce  could  be 
observed.  The  three  boats  being  brought  together  the 
evening  was  spent  by  the  crew  of  the  centre  boat  giving  a 
theatrical  entertainment  to  which  all  were  invited.  The 
performance  simple,  but  amusing,  consisted  of  a  man  who 
was  supposed  to  be  ignorant  but  shrewd,  being  accosted 
by  the  questionable  people  of  the  city  he  was  visiting,  in 
an  effort  to  both  rob  him  and  have  fun  with  him.  As  it  was 
purely  original  and  played  by  people  who  were  likely  por- 
traying personal  experiences,  it  was  both  intensely  real  and 
intensely  amusing.  The  next  evening  we  reached  City 
Point  after  dark  and  the  following  morning  in  looking  out 
my  state  room  window  I  was  delighted  and  elated  at  seeing 
away  up  on  the  bank  alongside  a  frame  house  a  Confed- 
erate soldier  with  gun  doing  picket  duty.  So  constantly 
had  I  been  thrown  with  Union  soldiers  and  had  only  seen 
Confederates  as  prisoners  of  war  that  to  see  a  Confederate 
soldier  free  and  in  arms  doing  duty  on  Confederate  soil 
was  like  a  haven  long  sought  for.     The  train  of  two  pas- 


senger  coaches  with  an  antiquated  engine  had  brought 
down  from  Petersburg  a  large  number  of  people  evidently 
attracted  by  curiosity  and  a  number  collected  on  shore 
around  the  gang  plank  and  exchanged  newspapers  with 
those  on  board  the  boats.  The  large  quantity  of  baggage 
we  carried  quickly  brought  us  trouble,  for  twelve  trunks 
and  a  large  chest  for  a  family  of  two  adults  and  three 
children  at  a  time  when  one  traveling  by  a  flag  o£ .-  truce 
earned  his  baggage  in  his  hand,  excited  suspicion  and 
upon  our  arrival  at  Petersburg  we  were-  directed  to  there 
discontinue  our  trip  to  Richmond  and  my  father-  was  re- 
quired to  report  daily  to  General  Colston  until  his  status 
as  a  loyal  Southern  citizen  could  be  established.  The 
Bollingbrook  Hotel  where  we  located  was  overflowing  with 
Confederate  officers,  and  after  three  days  spent  there  and 
afterword  being  sent  from  my  father's  friends  among  them 
his  cousin  Jefferson  T.  Marten.  Confederate  States  Mar- 
shall for  Virginia  and  Charles  W.  Russell  of  the  Confed- 
erate House  of  Representatives  that  if  Dr.  Hughes  was  not 
loyal  no  one  was,  we  were  permitted  to  proceed  to  our 
destination.  I  was  impressed  with  the  conviction  that 
Gen.  Colston's  action  was  merely  from  abundant  caution, 
for  the  friendly  spirit  shown  my  father  and  the  abundant 
good  humor  indicated  that  there  was  no  real  belief  that 
all  was  not  right,  but  that  the  circumstances  required  ex- 
amination and  explaining  before  we  could  be  allowed  to 
pass.  A  short  ride  soon  brought  our  train  to  the  long  high 
bridge  over  the  James  River  and  as  it  crossed  the  bridge 
we  got  our  first  view  of  what  was  then  wonderfully  bust- 
ling Richmond  with  streets  so  crowded  that  Main  Street 
from  Eighth  to  Thirteenth  on  both  sides  was  sometimes 
almost  impassible,  in  marked  contrast  some  years  subse- 
quent to  the  close  of  the  war  when  on  one  business  day 
during  the  busy  hour  of  the  day  I  once  looked  over  the 
same  stretch  and  counted  in  the  entire  length  but  three 
people.  A  rattling,  uncomfortable  omnibus  carried  us  to 
the   Ballard   House,    where   we   remained   some   weeks. 


This  hotel,  perhaps  the  best  in  Richmond,  was  in  curious 
contrast  to  Barnum's  in  Baltimore;  at  the  latter  every 
delicacy  was  furnished  in  abundance — at  the  Ballard  House 
the  dessert  for  dinner  for  instance  consisted  usually  of  rice 
pudding  and  apple  pie,  the  balance  of  the  menu  and  the 
balance  of  the  meals  were  on  the  same  scale.  At  this 
period  there  was  only  one  other  hotel  in  Richmond  its 
equal,  the  Spottswood  at  Main  and  Eighth  burned  about 
a  year  after  the  war,  and  two  more  not  so  good,  the 
American  on  Main  Street  opposite  the  postoffice  destroyed 
by  the  fire  when  Richmond  was  evacuated,  and  the  Pow- 
hatan on  Eleventh  opposite  the  Capitol  Square  and  known 
after  the  war  as  Ford's  Capitol  Hotel.  The  Exchange 
Hotel  was  then  closed.  At  that  time  gold  was  worth  about 
one  dollar  for  three  of  Confederate.  In  1864  and  1865  it 
was  worth  one  for  sixty  or  seventy  Confederate  and  board 
at  the  Spattswood  was  then  about  seventy  dollars  a  day. 
Bread  was  worth  a  dollar  a  loaf,  a  large  ginger  cake  cost 
a  dollar  and  a  pie  cost  a  dollar,  curious  disproportions. 

An  incident  illustrative  of  a  poltical  canvass  among 
soldiers  was  one  of  the  occurrences  that  soon  attracted  my 
attention.  An  election  for  Confederate  congressman  for 
the  District  of  Virginia,  which  now  comprises  a  part  of 
the  State  of  West  Virginia  was  under  way ;  the  candidates 
were  Charles  W.  Russell  formerly  of  Wheeling  and  a  Dr. 
Kidwell  of,  I  believe,  Clarksburg.  The  district  was  en- 
tirely in  the  Union  lines  and  hence  the  only  voters  were 
Confederate  soldiers  and  refugees.  Dr.  Kidwell  had  head- 
quarters at  the  Ballard  House  in  a  room  opening  immedi- 
ately on  the  ladies'  entrance  on  Franklin  Street  at  the 
corner  of  Thirteenth  and  it  was  an  occasion  to  make  one 
cheerful  to  see  the  Doctor  who  was  tall  and  slender  smil- 
ingly dispense  good  cheer  from  numerous  decanters  to  the 
many  refugees  and  a  few  soldiers  who  sought  him.  Mr. 
Russell  also  boarded  at  the  same  hotel,  but  he  evidently 
felt  pretty  secure,  as  he  made  no  effort  to  entertain  and 
his  room   was   on   the   upper   floor.     This  canvass   was 


G 

in  marked  contrast  with  another  that  went  on  near  the 
same  time  at  the  Powhatan.  An  election  for  the  State 
Legislature  was  near  and  the  candidates  from  the  legisla- 
tive districts  in  what  is  now  West  Virginia  met  the  same 
conditions,  namely,  their  territory  was  exclusively  in  the 
Union  lines  and  the  voters  were  refugees  and.  soldiers. 
Several  of  the  candidates  boarded  at  the  Powhatan  and 
the  meetings  in  the  Congressional  candidates  room  that 
were  more  formal  by  reasons  of  the  callers  being  from 
divers  sections,  now  in  the  case  of  the  Legislative  candi- 
dates became  more  sociable  and  nightly  refugees  and  sol- 
diers from  the  same  local  section  assembled  and  intensely 
enjoyed  the  gossip  that  went  on  in  a  dense  cloud  of  smoke 
from  tobacco  pipes. 

My  father  was  a  candidate  for  some  medical  position  in 
in  the  gift  of  the  President  and  by  appointment  he  was 
taken  accompanied  by  me  to  call  upon  Mr.  Davis.  The 
President's  office  was  on  the  second  floor  of  the  post  office 
building  entering  from  Bank  Street,  the  street  in  the  rear 
of  Main  Street,  and  on  the  right  side  of  the  hall.  My 
father  took  with  him  for  presentation  to  the  President  a 
curiously  carved  cane  that  had  been  constructed  by  one 
of  the  prisoners  at  Camp  Chase.  Constructing  articles  of 
this  sort  being  the  way  prisoners  passed  then  time.  This 
particular  cane  was  made  of  pine  wood,  had  winding  ser- 
pents carved  along  it  and  was  varnished  a  dark,  brown 
bright  color.  In  the  entree  room  was  only  the  President's 
secretary  and  no  others.  When  we  were  ushered  into  the 
President's  room  we  found  him  alone.  He  was  standing 
in  the  center  of  the  room  and  remained  standing  during 
the  short  interview  which  lasted  about  five  minutes,  he 
did  little  talking,  most  of  it  being  done  by  my  father,  he 
had  a  natural,  pleasant  manner  and  gave  close  attention 
to  what  was  said  to  him  and  was  apparently  ignorant  of 
my  presence.  I  was  only  a  little  boy  twelve  years  of  age. 
He  was  a  small,  delicate,  but  active  man  dressed  entirely 
in  black,  and  one  day  after  the  war  I  saw  him  as  I  believe 


walking  on  Baltimore  Street  in  Baltimore,  looking  exactly 
as  I  had  seen  him  that  day  in  his  office  in  Richmond,  ex- 
cept that  he  no  longer  had  the  air  of  concentration  shown 
at  our  interview.  It  was  rather  a  mystery  to  me  how  my 
father,  a  homeopathic  physician,  expected  to  obtain  a 
prominent  medical  position  in  the  Government  when  allo- 
pathic physicians  alone  held  sway  and  homeopathy  was 
unknown,  but  as  he  usually  managed  to  get  what  he 
wanted  and  I  never  made  comments  I  said  nothing, 
although  my  notion  turned  out  to  be  correct. 

Homeopathy  was  not  very  extensively  known  in  Rich- 
mond, a  few  years  before  a  physician  of  that  school  who 
had  been  located  there  had  left  and  from  him  or  some 
member  of  his  family  my  father  obtained  a  list  of  his 
former  patients.  He  formed  the  acquaintance  of  several 
and  his  journalistic  relations  formed  in  past  years  as  a 
cantributor  to  the  newspapers  led  him  to  look  to  the  Rich- 
mond papers  for  help,  so  that  most  of  the  papers  were  of 
great  service  to  him.  The  Examiner  had  an  elaborate 
editorial  on  the  subject  of  Homeopathy.  The  Enquirer, 
the  Dispatch  and  the  Whig  also  contained  nattering  notices 
and  Mr.  Ritchie  of  the  Enquirer,  Mr.  Coworden  and  Mr. 
Ellison  of  the  Dispatch  and  Mr.  Alexander  Mosely  of  the 
Whig  became  his  patients,  as  did  also  Mr.  Smith  of  the 
Sentinel  when  that  paper  was  subsequently  established,  so 
that  the  associations  he  thus  fo lined,  together  with  his 
being  elected  to  the  Legislature  to  represent  Ohio  county 
in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates  enabled  him  to  keep 
his  family  in  comfort.  The  latter  office  gave  him  many 
privileges.  For  instance  my  shoes  were  gotten  at  the 
Penitentiary  whose  superintendent  Mr.  Knote  was  a  con- 
stituent of  my  father,  and  most  nice  fitting  shoes  they 
were.  He  had  passes  over  all  the  railroads  and  his  trips 
were  both  pleasant  and  productive  of  luxuries  for  at  a 
time  when  coffee  was  made  of  corn  meal  rolled  in  sorghum 
molasses,  roasted  and  ground,  and  the  only  cloth  was 
homespun  and  tea  was  about  non-existent  as  also  loaf  sugar, 


indeed  everything  reduced  to  the  simplest,  the  rations   of 
the  soldiers  for  instance  being   nearly   exclusively   corn- 
meal  and  bacon,  a  trip  of  my  father  to  Wilmington,  North 
Carolina,  led  him  to  visit  a  blockade  runner  from  Nassau, 
the  steamer  Hansa,  and  when  the  captain  ascertained  who 
he  was,  and  through  him  he  could  obtain  an  introduction  to 
the  President  and  others  in  authority  at  Richmond,  a  ship- 
ment was  received  at  our  house  from  this  ship  of  a  bag  of 
coffee,  a  box  of  tea,    a  barrel  of  loaf  sugar  and  cloth  for 
suits  of  clothes  and  toys  for  the  children.     It  should  be 
added  that  my  fathers  skill  as  a  physician  quickly  became 
recognized  and  his  practice  had  extended  to  the  families  of 
those  occupying  the  highest  official  positions  under  the 
Government.     Upon  another  occasion  on  one  of  his  trips 
he  had  obtained  under  some  advantageous  arrangement 
a  large  amount  of  flour.     This  he  determined  to  sell  and 
one  evening  he  sold  it  to  a  baker  on  Broad  Street  and  the 
very  large  amount  of  money  paid  in  bulky  bills,  he,  out  of 
apprehension  for  the  garoters  that  infested  Richmond  at 
this  time,   concealed  under   my  coat   around  my   person, 
knowing  there  was  slight  danger  of  any  attempt  to  rob  a 
young  boy  with  ostensibly  nothing  to  take  from  him.     The 
comparative  luxury  which  we  were  enabled  to  enjoy  was 
participated  in  by  my  father's  constituents,  for  the   Con- 
federate soldier  from  our  district  when  visiting  Richmond 
on  furlough  was  welcomed  and  entertained  so   that   this 
period  of  my  life  is  one  that  I  look  back  upon  more  than 
any  other  as  the  most  pleasant  and  enjoyable.     To  what 
a  simple  basis  living  had  been  reduced  it  may   be   noted 
that  instead  of  candles  long  wax  tapers  wound  around   in 
pyramid  shapes  were  used,  sorghum  molasses,  black  eye 
peas  and  bacon  and  cabbage  and  potatoes   and   cornmeal 
were   the   staples.     Flour   bread   was   rather   a   luxury. 
There  were  two  principal  confectionery  stores :     Pisani  on 
Broad  Street  near  10th  and  Antoni  on  Main   Street   near 
9th,  but  the  scant  array  in  each  was  in  sad  contrast  to  the 
luxury  now  found  in  any  first  class  confectionery,  at  the 


9 

former  one  could  get  a  saucer  of  ice  cream,  at  the  last  a 
glass  of  jelly.  The  scarcity  of  food  and  narrowness  of 
range  was  in  great  contrast  to  the  vast  number  of  people 
on  the  streets.  On  Main  Street  from  the  Spottswood 
Hotel  at  8th  down  to  13th  Street  near  where  the  Examiner 
and  the  Whig  newspapers  were  located  was  a  dense  stream 
of  people  on  each  side,  mostly  officers  in  uniform,  for  the 
private  was  sure  to  be  stopped  by  the  provost  guard  that 
paraded  up  and  down  the  sidewalk  looking  for  soldiers 
who  were  away  without  leave. 

Free  newspapers  were  another  perquisite  of  legislators, 
except  they  must  send  for  them  and  my  mission  was  to 
attend  in  12th  Street  at  the  newspaper  offices  early  each 
morning  among  the  crowd  assembled  there  waiting  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  papers  of  which  four:  the  Dispatch,  Ex- 
aminer, Whig  and  Sentinel  were  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
and  the  fifth  the  Enquirer  around  on  the  other  side  of 
Main  Street.  It  was  upon  one  of  these  occasions  that  I 
witnessed  a  memorable  funeral  of  a  soldier,  Lieutenant 
Noah  Walker,  whose  home  was  in  Baltimore  who  had  been 
recently  killed  in  an  engagement,  his  head  having  been, 
it  was  stated  completely  destroyed  and  the  Maryland 
friends  in  Richmond  had  been  requested  to  assemble  ear- 
ly one  morning  at  a  warehouse  opposite  the  Examiner 
office  at  his  funeral  service.  There  were  not  many  who 
came,  probably  twenty.  It  was  pathetic  to  observe  the 
concern  and  silent  regard  that  each  one  manifested  as 
strangers  in  a  strange  city  away  from  their  home  and 
friends  doing  homage  to  the  memory  of  one  who  possessed 
an  amiable,  gentle  nature  that  attached  all  who  knew  him. 
The  occasion  particularly  appealed  to  me  when  told  who 
he  was,  as  this  gentleman  when  we  first  arrived  in  Rich- 
mond and  when  our  straightened  circumstances  required 
us  to  live  all  in  one  room  had  been  a  guest  at  one  of  our 
breakfasts,  which  consisted  of  rolls  and  breakfast  bacon 
broiled  by  my  father  on  the  open  fire  of  the  room  and 
which  we  all  deliciously  enjoyed.     The  Mary  landers  and 


10 

especially  Baltinioreans  were  particularly  attentive  in  ob- 
servance of  respect  for  their  compatriots  and  the  funeral 
of  Lieutenant  Walker  was  very  much  like  that  which  took 
place  at  St.  James  Church  of  Gen'l.  Dimmock,  the  same 
assemblage  of  serious  visaged  men,  who  indicated  in  their 
appearance  that  they  were  strangers  away  from  home  and 
familiar  associations  and  with  an  earnest  concern  for  the 
occasion  and  for  each  other.  These  experiences 
that  appeal  to  Marylanders  were  in  contrast  to  another 
when  General  Pegram  was  married  in  St.  Paul's  Church 
to  Miss  Hetty  Carey  of  Baltimore.  Gen'l.  Pegram  in  full 
Confederate  uniform  and  with  sword  at  his  side  was  accom- 
panied by  Miss  Carey,  entering  the  church  together.  She 
wore  over  her  dress  a  heavy  sash  of  red,  white  and  red 
hanging  over  the  right  shoulder  and  falling  down  below 
the  waist  on  the  left  side.  There  was  no  appearance  of 
strangeness  there  and  no  air  of  constraint  and  all  was  great 
joyous  expectancy  and  full  of  life.  Miss  Carey  was  one 
of  the  belles  of  Richmond  and  consequently  the  church 
was  crowded.  I  stood  in  the  vestibule  next  to  the  inner 
door  and  as  the  two  passed  the  scene  was  in  marked  con- 
trast to  the  sad  sequel  very  soon  to  occur  when  Gen'l. 
Pegram  lost  his  life  in  battle. 

Another  circumstance  of  my  father's  life  as  a  legislator 
was  the  opportunity  afforded  me  of  seeing  and  knowing 
the  prominent  persons  connected  with  both  the  Confeder- 
ate and  State  governments  and  I  soon  formed  the  acquain- 
tance of  almost  every  one  in  the  State  House.  I  had  the 
free  run  of  the  entire  Capitol  and  was  very  much  aided  in 
this  by  being  taken  from  the  private  school  I  was  attend- 
ing, Mr.  Alfriend's,  who  afterwards  was  the  author  of  the 
life  of  President  Davis,  and  placed  under  a  private  tutor 
Mr.  Burrell,  a  very  old  gentleman  employed  as  a  clerk  in 
the  Auditor's  Office  in  the  Capitol.  I  do  not  know  whether 
the  Capitol  presents  the  same  appearance  now  as  then, 
when  the  Legislature  is  in  session,  but  then  around  the 
rotunda  was  stretched  a  circle  of  peanut  stands,  eight  or 


11 

ten  in  number  and  the  floor  was  strewn  with  peanut  shells, 
tobacco  juice  and  dirt  and  no  one  seemed  to  object.  On 
the  side  facing  towards  Broad  Street  on  the  first  floor  over 
the  basement  was  the  House  of  Delegates,  in  the  room 
over  this  was  the  State  Senate ;  opposite  the  House  of 
Delegates  across  the  rotunda  was  the  Confederate  House 
of  Representatives  and  in  the  room  above  was  the  State 
Library. 

Free  access  to  the  Capitol  gave  me  the  opportunity  to 
observe  minutely  the  funeral  arrangements  for  General 
Thomas  J.  Jackson.  Stonewall  Jackson's  remains  were 
brought  to  Richmond  to  lie  in  state  in  the  Capitol  prepara- 
tory to  his  funeral.  And  they  arrived  late  one  evening 
and  were  first  deposited  in  a  little  room  on  the  left  of  the 
entrance  to  the  Capitol  on  the  side  next  to  the  Governor's 
house.  The  burial  casket  was  placed  on  a  bier,  uncovered, 
and  the  custodian  of  the  Capitol  permitted  a  favored  few 
including  myself  to  view  the  remains.  The  coffin  had 
evergreen  heavily  intertwined  around  it.  There  were  no 
flowers.  His  face  was  exactly  as  appears  in  his  photo- 
graphs, except  it  was  thinner,  the  features  were  perfectly 
placid,  not  evidencing  that  he  had  suffered  pain,  his 
whiskers  and  mustache  were  of  unusual  thickness,  his 
forehead  high  and  his  hair  coal  black.  I  brought  a  small 
portion  of  the  evergreen  on  the  casket  away  with  me. 
After  lying  in  state  when  his  funeral  took  place  the  cortege 
was  preceded  by  a  brass  band  that  played  a  funeral  dirge ; 
the  horse  that  General  Jackson  rode  with  General  Jack- 
son's boots  hanging  down  one  on  each  side  of  his  saddle 
came  next  to  the  hearse  and  was  led  by  his  body  servant. 
The  funeral  was  impressive  as  only  such  a  one  could   be. 

The  Capitol  and  grounds  were  the  center  for  interesting 
occurrences.  The  second  inauguration  of  Mr.  Davis  as 
President  of  the  Confederacy  took  place  in  front  of  "Wash- 
ington's monument  situated  near  the  entrance  to  the 
grounds  from  Grace  Street.  The  ceremony  was  on  the 
side  facing  the  Capitol  and  a  dense  concourse  of  people 


12 

extended  from  that  point  almost  to  the  Capitol  building. 
I  was  on  the  outskirts  of  this  crowd  and  could  only  see 
the  outline  of  the  figures  of  the  participants  in  the  ceremony. 

On  another  occasion  Gen'l.  Henry  A.  Wise,  ex-governor 
of  the  State,  who  was  levantly  called  "fire  eater"  was  to 
make  a  speech  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Delegates. 
His  popularity  and  general  interest  to  hear  him  was  evi- 
denced by  an  assemblage  that  became  so  dense  that  an 
unusual  expedient  was  adopted,  namely,  an  adjournment 
was  had  to  the  same  point  from  which  Mr.  Davis  was  in- 
augurated and  when  the  speaker  with  the  crowd  assembled 
reached  the  monument  a  rain  came  up  so  that  he  was  obliged 
to  return,  a  large  number  of  persons  having  quit  because  of 
the  rain,  thereby  leaving  the  room  comfortablv  filled.  His 
slender  spare  frame,  almost  haggard  countenance  and  shrill 
voice,  all  of  themselves  rendered  him  a  spectacular  speaker 
and  his  eloquence  directed  immediately  to  you  made  him  an 
interesting  speaker. 

A  curious  occurrence  took  place  daily  in  Capitol  Square 
in  the  morning  before  breakfast.  A  company  of  decrepit 
old  men,  all  I  think  without  exception  were  thus,  assem- 
bled on  the  broad  walk  along  the  Capitol  facing  Capitol 
Street  to  drill  as  soldiers.  The  only  striking  quality  about 
them  was  their  evident  inability  for  service  from  old  age 
and  yet  the  cheerfulness  and  zeal  with  which  they  handled 
their  muskets  and  went  through  simple  evolutions  evi- 
denced a  spirit  unconscious  of  non  utility.  This  company 
shortly  before  Richmond  was  evacuated  was  succeeded  at 
the  same  place  and  at  the  same  time  daily  by  an  equally 
curious  assemblage  and  that  was  a  company  of  negroes, 
intended  to  form  the  embryo  negro  troops  for  the  Confed- 
erate army.  I  have  heard  it  often  declared  that  no  negro 
troops  were  ever  enlisted  on  the  Southern  side.  For  a 
considerable  time  before  the  war  ended  the  enlistment  of 
negroes  as  troops  was  earnestly  deliberated  and  the  efforts 
in  this  direction  in  the  Virginia  Legislature  led  to  the  for- 
mation of  this  Company  of  State  troops.     My  father  as  a 


13 

member  of  the  Legislature  warmly  advocated  the  enlist- 
ment of  negroes,  having  made  an  elaborate  argument  in 
the  House  of  Delegates  for  that  purpose. 

This  company  of  negroes  comprised  about  fifty  or  sixty 
men,  about  25  or  30  years  of  age,  were  almost  entirely 
dark  mulattoes,  wore  no  uniforms,  indeed  few  soldiers  in 
the  Confederacy  wore  uniforms  except  the  officers  and  most 
of  theirs  were  shabby  and  old.  The  striking  peculiarity 
about  this  negro  company  was  one  that  had  appeared  to 
possess  the  company  of  old  men,  namely  that  while  evi- 
dencing interest  in  their  drill  it  appeared  to  be  for  only  niom- 
entary  purposes  and  it  all  seemed  to  be  viewed  as  without 
any  subsequent  purpose.  And  the  peculiority  about  the 
negro  company  was  that  they  appeared  to  regard  them- 
selves as  isolated  or  out  of  place,  as  if  engaged  in  a  work 
not  exactly  in  accord  with  their  notions  of  self  interest,  no 
doubt  attributable  to  the  fact  that  their  inclination  must 
have  been  against  engaging  on  the  Southern  side.  Their 
reward  for  enlistment  I  believe  was  to  be  freedom  from 
slavery.  The  life  of  a  free  negro  in  a  slave  holding  coun- 
try was  however  not  a  very  attractive  one.  He  was 
usually  shunned  by  the  slaves,  who  were  jealous  of  him 
and  from  whom  he  usually  held  aloof  and  the  whites  re- 
garded him  with  suspicion  as  unreliable  and  indifferent. 

An  incident  occurred  in  my  experience  at  the  Capitol 
that  may  be  regarded  as  of  particular  interest.  I  have  a 
portion  of  the  Confederate  flag  that  floated  over  the  Capi- 
tol, the  Capitol  of  the  Confederacy  at  the  fall  of  Richmond. 
When  last  in  Richmond  the  Librarian  in  the  State  Library 
upon  my  asking  him  what  had  become  of  the  flag,  showed  me 
a  small  bundle  of  bunting  lying  in  a  glass  book  case  and 
he  said  it  was  portions  of  the  flag  that  people  had  brought 
back  and  given  to  the  Library.  I  told  him  I  had  a  piece 
but  intended  to  retain  it.  Mine  came  into  my  hands  in 
this  wise.  As  my  father  was  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Delegates  this  gave  me  the  run  of  the  Capitol  and  I  was 
intimate  with  the  pages  in  the  House.     On  one  of  our  ex- 


u 

cursions  through  the  building  we  went  through  the  Library 
and  through  a  garrett  above  and  then  through  a  trap  door 
onto  the  roof,  in  returning  I  was  last  and  lying  on  the  roof, 
half  inside  the  open  trap  door  was  the  flag,  at  the  end  it 
had  a  slit  about  one  inch  long  and  wide  and  it  was  so  sug- 
gestive that  involuntarily  almost  I  continued  the  slit  for  the 
flag's  entire  length  and  tearing  the  strip  away,  rolled  it  up 
and  put  it  in  my  pocket. 

At  another  time  I  ran  across  the  Vice  President  Alexan- 
der H.  Stephens.  Something  attracted  his  attention  to 
me.  He  regarded  me  with  curious  interest,  I  presume 
because  a  little  boy  was  observing  him  so  closely.  His 
lameness  and  delicately  drawn  features  were  sufficient  to 
attract,  but  his  small  stature  and  earnest,  studious  ex- 
pression of  countenance  were  equally  attractive.  He  like 
most  of  the  persons  I  saw  or  met  in  a  prominent  govern- 
ment relation  in  Richmond  seemed  to  take  the  life  of  these 
strenuous,  stirring  times  most  philosophically  and  in  a 
matter  of  fact  way  free  from  worry  or  excitement.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  the  cannonading  below  Drurys 
Bluffs  on  the  James  River  below  Richmond  could  not  only 
be  distinctly  heard  but  it  was  only  necessary  to  secure  an 
elevation  and  see  the  distinct  flash  of  the  cannon  it  will  be 
seen  how  close  we  constantly  lived  to  conditions  of  trouble. 
Often  I  climbed  the  garrett  of  the  Powhatan  Hotel,  where 
many  of  my  legislative  friends  boarded  to  see  the  flash  of 
the  cannonading. 

Genl.  Smith,  ex-governor,  "extra  Billy  Smith"  he  was 
called  was  another  interesting  person  I  met  at  the  Capitol. 
The  reputation  he  had  acquired  of  kissing  all  the  babies 
on  his  election  tours  was  warranted  by  his  manner.  Ease 
of  bearing,  perfect  accord  with  you,  absolute  freedom  from 
any  ostentation  were  patent,  no  effort  to  lead  in  conversa- 
tion, the  friendly  utterances  of  an  old  friend  all  bespoke  in 
him  the  consummate  politician  rather  than  the  soldier. 

One  of  the  most  historical  events  that  occurred  in  Rich- 
mond I  have  never  seen  referred   to   in  any   writing.     It 


15 

was  after  the  return  of  the  unsuccessful  peace  mission  to 
Fortress  Monroe.  A  mass  meeting  was  held  in  the  African 
Church  in  Broad  Street  near  the  Monumental  Church  and 
the  speakers  were  detailing  to  the  audience  the  events  and 
results  of  the  mission.  One  of  the  last  speakers  was  Judah 
P.  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Confederacy  and 
one  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  declarations  was  made  with  great 
vehemence  that  as  long  as  a  drop  of  blood  flowed  in  his 
veins  and  until  the  last  drop  he  would  never  surrender. 
It  is  peculiar  that  Mr.  Benjamin  was  entirely  consistent 
in  this  declaration  of  his,  because  as  the  Southern  Confed- 
eracy faded  away  he  escaped  in  an  open  boat  to  one  of  the 
near  by  South  Atlantic  islands  of  England,  Bermuda,  I 
think,  and  ultimately  reached  London  where  he  achieved 
great  eminence  in  his  profession  as  a  lawyer  and  ulti- 
mately retired  to  Paris  where  he  died  without  ever  re- 
turning to  the  United  States. 

General  John  H.  Morgan  I  saw  immediately  upon  his 
return'  as  a  prisoner  from  the  North.  He  was  warmly 
greeted  in  Richmond  and  his  gratified  expression  showed 
his  appreciation.  His  healthy  complexion,  well  kept,  full 
appearance  and  free  from  care  ah- indicated,  that  although 
a  prisoner  he  had  evidently  been  supplied  with  necessaries 
that  were  strangers  to  the  meagerly  supplied  Confederate 
officers  in  active  service.  Genl.  Morgan  was  of  rather 
more  than  medium  size  and  development  and  reminded 
one  more  of  the  bonhomie  clubman,  bordering  on  the  gen- 
ial and  agreeable  Bohemian  rather  than  impressing  one  as 
the  bold  dashing  border  raider  in  which  he  had  acquired 
his  reputation,  and  as  which  he  soon  after  leaving  Rich- 
mond lost  his  life. 

General  J.  B.  Stewart,  "Jeb Stewart, "who commanded 
the  Confederate  cavalry  was  of  a  remarkable  personality. 
I  saw  him  riding  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry  in  passing 
through  Richmond.  His  hah'  was  black  and  long,  his 
face  was  full,  with  large  eyes  and  a  prominent  nose,  his 
shirt  was  cut  low  particularly  in  front,  showing  a  massive 


16 

ueck.  He  sat  ou  his  horse  the  perfection  of  a  horseman, 
holding  the  bridle  in  such  a  way  that  the  horse,  a  well 
kept  one,  seemed  to  partake  of  his  rider's  intense  vitality. 
Although  Genl.  Stewart  was  unlike  General  Pickett,  yet 
something  applicable  alike  to  the  two  reminded  me  the  one 
of  the  other  and  when  I  saw  General  Pickett  at  the  head 
of  his  command,  as  I  did,  pass  through  Richmond  before 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg  and  then  saw  this  same  command 
with  its  thinned  out  ranks  on  its  return  after  the  campaign 
in  which  that  battle  took  place,  the  contrast  was  so  heart 
rending  that  it  was  an  exceedingly  sad  welcome  extended 
them.  Troops  were  constantly  passing  through  Richmond 
the  last  two  years  of  the  war  and  the  scantiness  which  ex- 
isted in  rations  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  the  staple 
fare  being  corn  bread  and  bacon,  extended  to  the  clothes 
of  the  soldiers.  In  a  large  command  for  instance  a  bri- 
gade it  was  customary  to  see  numbers  of  soldiers  without 
coats,  others  without  hats,  others  without  shoes,  conditions 
almost  incredible  to  believe  unless  actually  seen  as  I  often 
did.  Upon  one  occasion  while  it  was  snowing  a  brigade  of 
infantry  was  marching  up  Main  Street  and  when  it  reached 
the  Spottswood  Hotel  a  hatter  named  Dooley  who  kept  a  hat 
store  under  the  Spottswood  rolled  from  his  store  a  number  of 
large  wooden  boxes,  broke  them  open  and  took  therefrom 
a  collection  of  shop  worn  straw  hats  which  he  forthwith 
proceded  to  distribute  to  those  of  the  soldiers  who  were 
without  any  covering  for  their  heads  to  shield  them  from 
the  falling  snow.  How  our  soldiers  with  all  their  discom- 
forts, privations  and  sad  conditions  were  capable  of  doing 
any  fighting  instead  of  being  the  brave,  enduring  men  they 
were  furnished  a  great  tribute  for  the  Southern  spirit,  and 
the  Southern  cause. 

General  Ewell  while  he  was  recuperating  from  his  ser- 
ious wounds  lived  immediately  opposite  our  house  on 
Marshall  street  in  Richmond  and  would  daily  on  his 
crutches  walk  up  and  down  the  porch.  He  was  tall  and 
slender  and  in  his  neat  gray  uniform  and   with    his    dark 


17 

bushy  whiskers  enveloping  a  palid   face   his   appearance 
was  a  reminder  of  the  suffering  he  had  endured. 

General  Jubal  Early  was  a  small,  active  nervous  man 
with  a  curious  mixture  of  force  of  character  and  apparent 
volatilness.  His  most  striking  characteristic  was  unceas- 
ing restlessness.  He  said  nothing  and  did  nothing  that 
was  particularly  impressive,  but  in  a  large  room  crowded 
with  men  with  no  particular  deference  shown  to  him  I  was 
instantly  attracted  by  the  movements  of  one  whom  I  soon 
learned  was  General  Early  and  I  then  understood  how  he 
had  worked  out  the  results  he  had  in  his  historical  valley 
campaigns. 

Colonel  Mosby  I  never  saw  until  shortly  after  the  war 
ended,  that  was  at  the  funeral  of  Hon.  Charles  W.  Russell 
in  Baltimore,  He  was  a  man  that  reminded  me  very 
much  of  General  Early  except  that  he  was  of  a  quiet  bear- 
ing, closely  shaven,  with  keen  eyes  and  an  incisive  man- 
ner and  one  could  believe  how  he  had  been  successful  in 
the  many  raids  that  had  made  him  famous.  On  one  of 
these  raids  he  had  captured  General  Benjamin  F.  Kelley 
and  General  Crook,  two  Major  Generals  in  the  Union  Army, 
having  ridden  one  night  with  a  detachment  of  his  cavalry 
through  the  Union  lines  to  the  Hotel  in  Romani  where  they 
were  staying,  required  them  to  rise,  dress  and  accompany 
him  past  their  own  troops  into  the  Confederate  lines,  the 
Federal  troops  supposing  Mosby' s  men  to  be  a  detachment 
of  their  own  cavalry.  The  two  captured  generals  were 
brought  to  Libby  prison  in  Richmond.  Genl.  Kelley  had 
married  into  a  family  with  whom  my  own  family  was  inti- 
mate and  my  father  when  he  learned  of  General  Kelley' s 
arrival  arranged  to  visit  him.  We  took  with  us  a  large 
market  basket  filled  with  eatables,  such  as  Maryland  bis- 
cuit, a  boiled  ham  and  other  nice  things  and  after  passing 
through  the  outer  offices  of  the  prison  we  came  into  the 
large  room  where  General  Kelley  was.  I  was  struck  with 
the  very  small  number  of  prisoners  in  so  large  room ; 
Libby  Prison  had  been  a  tobacco  warehouse  and  this  one 


IS 

of  the  large  rooms  of  the  warehouse,  on  the  first  floor  from 
the  entrance  and  second  floor  from  the  rear.  There  was 
only  one  other  Union  officer  besides  General  Crook  in  the 
room  and  he  was  in  the  open  space  between  that  and  the 
next  room.  We  talked  with  General  Kelly  near  the  win- 
dow in  the  rear,  there  were  no  chairs  in  the  room  and 
General  Crook  stood  off  in  the  middle  of  the  room  viewing 
us  with  curiosity.  He  had  on  long  boots  that  came  above 
his  knees,  his  pants  being  inside  and  one  foot  was  on  the 
floor  and  the  other,  his  right,  resting  on  a  box,  he  was 
slightly  stooping  over  with  his  right  hand  on  his  knee. 
General  Kelley  called  to  him  and  he  came  over  where  we 
were  and  after  being  introduced  joined  in  our  conversa- 
tion. The  extreme  pleasure  shown  by  General  Kelley  and 
the  interest  of  General  Crook  at  our  visit  was  always  a 
pleasant  experience  in  my  life  which  made  me  follow  in 
watching  the  fortunes  of  these  two  Union  officers  until 
each  passed  to  the  other  shore,  the  last  being  General 
Crook,  his  death  affecting  me  markedly  from  the  deep 
impression  he  had  made  on  me  in  that  interview  and  from 
the  close  observation  I  had  kept  of  him. 

There  was  another  prison  in  Richmond  not  so  well  known 
in  the  North  as  Libby  Prison,  but  was  better  known  in 
Richmond  and  to  many  Southern  soldiers  and  that  was 
"Castle  Thunder."  That  was  where  deserters  were  kept 
and  the  gentleman  in  command  of  the  prison  was  Captain 
Alexander  from  Baltimore.  I  once  dined  with  him  and 
his  wife  at  the  house  where  they  boarded.  I  was  a  guest 
of  Captain  and  Mrs.  Alexander  and  they  had  another 
guest  about  my  age,  Rosa,  the  little  daughter  of  Mrs. 
Greenhough  of  Washington,  who  after  surviving  a  period 
,  of  confinement  in  the  Capitol  Prison  at  Washington  almost 
within  the  shadow  of  the  statue  sculptured  by  her  husband 
had  been  permitted  to  come  South  to  Richmond  accom- 
panied by  her  daughter. 

There  was  still  another  military  prison  in  Richmond  and 
that  was  "Belle  Isle,"  out  in  the  middle  of  James  River. 


19 

As  Libby  Prison  was  exclusively  for  captured  officers,  so 
Belle  Isle  was  exclusively  for  privates  of  the  Union  Army, 
and  just  as  I  had  been  deeply  impressed  with  the  few 
prisoners  in  Libby  Prison,  I  was  markedly  impressed  with 
the  throngs  of  prisoners  at  Belle  Isle.  I  once  accompa- 
nied my  father  and  a  number  of  our  soldiers  to  call  upon 
one  of  the  prisoners  at  Belle  Isle.  This  prisoner  was 
sent  for  to  come  to  the  gate  to  talk  with  us,  But  when 
he  came  he  did  not  seem  particularly  glad  or  sorry  to  see 
us  and  seemed  to  regard  us  with  uninterested  curiosity 
rather  than  anything  else. 

General  Robert  E.  Lee  I  met  just  after  the  war  closed. 
He  had  returned  to  his  home  in  Richmond  on  Franklin 
street  between  7th  and  8th,  a  house  that  belonged  to  Mr. 
John  Stewart,  a  wealthy  Scotchman  who  resided  at  his 
country  place  on  the  Brooke  Turnpike  and  had  his  busi- 
ness office  in  the  basement  of  the  Franklin  street  house. 
Mr.  Stewart's  family  and  General  Lee's  wife  were  patients 
of  my  father.  Mrs.  Lee  had  long  been  an  invalid  and 
upon  the  occasion  of  meeting  General  Lee  I  accompanied 
my  father  who  went  to  pay  a  professional  visit  to  Mrs. 
Lee.  I  carried  with  me  six  of  General  Lee's  photographs 
intending  to  ask  him  to  sign  his  name  on  each.  We  were 
ushered  into  the  parlor  and  General  Lee  almost  imme- 
diately appeared.  My  father  introduced  me  and  then  went 
upstairs  to  see  Mrs.  Lee  leaving  me  with  General  Lee  who 
invited  me  over  to  a  seat  on  the  sofa  in  the  corner  by  a 
window  alongside  of  him,  he  sitting  next  to  the  window. 
Prior  to  sitting  on  the  sofa  however,  I  told  him  I  had 
brought  my  photographs  to  ask  him  to  sign  his  name  to 
them  and  he  took  them  to  the  dining  room  in  the  rear  of 
the  parlor  where  he  said  there  were  pen  and  ink  and  soon 
returned  with  his  name  signed  to  each  and  all  of  which  I 
subsequently  gave  away,  except  two  that  I  still  have.  On 
taking  his  seat  alongside  of  me  I  was  struck  with  the 
naturalness  and  simplicity  of  his  actions  and  conversation. 
He  had  a  full  face,  clear,  open  eyes,  healthful  complexion, 


20 

full  beard  of  gray  and  carried  himself  in  a  quiet  naturally 
dignified  way.  In  reply  to  his  questions  I  told  him  I  had 
been  before  the  war  closed  and  up  to  the  evacuation  of 
Richmond  a  cadet  at  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  being 
the  youngest  cadet  in  the  corps,  and  no  doubt  had  been 
the  youngest  that  ever  attended  there,  being  only  fourteen 
years  and  six  months  old.  He  told  me  that  he  had  just 
had  a  visit  from  and  talk  with  General  Smith,  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Institute  who  told  him  he  purposed  to  make 
arrangements  without  delay  to  reopen  the  Institute  at  Lex- 
ington its  former  home  before  it  was  destroyed  by  General 
Hunter  of  the  Union  Army,  and  I  urged  General  Lee  to 
intercede  for  me  with  my  father  to  permit  me  to  return  to 
the  Institute.  It  was  a  great  source  of  personal  gratifica- 
tion to  me,  a  young  boy  to  have  had  this  talk  with  General 
Lee.  There  is  one  feature  with  reference  to  General  Lee 
that  I  deem  it  necessary  to  advert  to.  In  someway,  I 
know  not  how,  it  has  been  recognized  as  true  that  General 
Lee  entertained  great  respect  and  high  personal  regard  for 
General  U.  S.  Grant.  I  know  that  General  Lee  had  oc- 
casion from  time  to  time  to  write  from  his  headquarters 
around  Richmond  to  my  father  in  reference  to  Mrs.  Lee's 
condition  and  in  one  of  these  letters  he  gave  distinct  ex- 
pression to  the  views  he  entertained  in  reference  to  Gen- 
eral Grant.  It  is  possible  that  these  views  were  modified 
at  the  time  of  his  personal  intercourse  with  General  Grant 
incident  to  the  surrender  of  his  army,  but  one  would  find 
difficulty  in  discovering  any  thing  in  the  incidant  of  the 
surrender  other  than  those  of  a  negative  character  calcu- 
lated to  produce  decided  changes  in  an  opinion  precon- 
ceived of  General  Grant's  character:  and  ones  opinions 
in  matters  of  this  sort  are  not  usually  affected  by  nega- 
tive influences.  The  views  expressed  by  General  Lee  in 
his  letter  were  not  those  popularly  accepted  after  the  war 
as  expressing  a  high  regard  for  General  Grant,  but  were 
the  views  generally  entertained  and  expressed  of  General 
Grant  by  the  Southern  people  in  the  South  during  the  war, 


21 

except  that  General  Lee  was  utterly  incapable  of  voicing 
the  popular  Southern  expression  wherein  General  Grant 
was  styled  in  the  South  during  the  war  by  the  Southern 
press  and  by  popular  expression  there,  horrible  as  it  now 
sounds,  a  '"butcher"  in  consequence  of  the  apparently 
heartless  way  in  which  he  subjected  great  bodies  of  his 
troops  to  what  appeared  useless  loss  of  life. 

In  one  of  my  interviews  with  Colonel  Charles  Marshall 
of  Baltimore  with  whom  I  enjoyed  many  years  of  inti- 
mate professional  relation,  I  stated  to  him  what  I  have 
above  referred  to,  mentioning  the  sentiments  expressed 
by  General  Lee  in  his  letters  to  my  father.  Colonel  Mar- 
shall who  had  been  General  Lee's  private  secretary  during 
the  war  gave  me  to  understand  that  he  knew  they  were 
the  sentiments  actually  entertained. 

Governor  Letcher  was  the  war  governor  of  Virginia. 
Those  who  called  upon  him  were  received  in  a  room  in 
the  State  House  at  one  end  of  which  stood  a  large  side 
board  occupied  by  decanters  and  glasses,  a  part  of  his 
Creed  was  to  extend  the  hospitality  of  this  side  board  to 
each  visitor.  Virginia  hospitality  required  him  to  keep 
company  in  the  partaking  of  the  refreshments  with  the 
result  that  he  had  a  phenomenally  red  face,  perpetually 
wreathed  in  smiles.  It  can  be  understood  that  delega- 
tions of  legislators  often  called  upon  him.  He  also  fre- 
quently held  evening  receptions  that  were  exceedingly 
agreeable  and  very  popular,  although  never  crowded  and 
at  one  of  these  receptions  which  I  attended  I  remember 
viewing  with  astonishment  a  portly  man  with  long  black 
curls  hanging  down  his  back  and  with  him  an  exceedingly 
pretty  young  girl  whom  I  learned  was  his  daughter.  This 
individual  was  well  known  in  Richmond  and  will  be  rec- 
ognized without  further  discription  by  any  one  conversant 
with  Richmond  life  during  the  war.  At  the  time  General 
Hunter  burned  the  Military  Institute  at  Lexington  he  also 
burned  Governor  Letcher's  house  located  there  in  revenge 
for  which  it  will  be  remembered  that  Harry  Gilmor  on  his 


90 


raid  into  Maryland  burned  the  house  of  Governor  Brad- 
ford on  Charles  Street  Avenue  a  few  miles  out  from  Bal- 
timore.    This  same  Harry  Gilmor  possessed  qualities  of 
a  superior  character,  for  I  remember  that  after  the  war 
when  he  returned  to  Baltimore,  with  the  occupation  for 
which  nature  fitted  him  as  a  soldier,  gone,  instead  of  his 
becoming  a  stipendiary  on  the  bounty  of  his  friends  he 
engaged  for  a  while  as  a  journeyman  painter,  although  no 
one  had  been  raised  with  better  rights  to  gentle  associa- 
tions and  I  once  viewed  him  with  intense  interest  painting 
the  front  of  a  house  on  the  west  side  of  Eutaw  street  near 
Franklin  and  he  was  doing  his  work  earnestly   and  well. 
With  a  slight  natural  defect  in  one  of   his  eyes,  his  face 
was  entirely  oblivious  to  the  fact  of  anything  unusual  in 
his  occupation,  a  spirit  of  independence  that  soon  after 
led  to  his  being  elected  sheriff  of  the  City.     This  same 
position  of    sheriff  was  also   held   by   another   returned 
Southerner  who  had  gone  to  Richmond  from  Baltimore 
where  he   had  been    Marshal  of  Police  shortly  after  we 
had   passed   through  on   our   way   to   Richmond.     This 
genial  gentleman,  George  P.  Kane,  showed  in  every  trait 
and  manner  his  racial  extraction  and  it  was  no  matter  of 
wonder  that  he  passed  from  sheriff  to  Mayor  of  the  City. 
When  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  was  burned  after 
the  battle  of  New  Market  where  the  cadets  lost  a  number 
who  were  killed  and  where  many  were  wounded,  the  corps 
was  s«mt  to  Richmond.     Every  Richmond  boy  had  a  great 
ambition  to  go  to  the  Institute,  at  that  time  regarded  as 
the  West  Point  of  the  South.     The  cadets  were  a  part  of 
the  Confederate  army  and  every  graduate  was  given  an 
officer's  commission   in  the  army.     Incidents  were  con- 
stantly occurring  to  keep  alive  and  active   this  spirit  to 
become   a   cadet — boys   have  little  fear  of  bullets,    they 
enjoy  the  excitement  of  active  army  life  and  even  death 
and  wounds  appeal  to  them  as  making  heroes.    After  the 
battle   of  New   Market   one  of  the  cadets  a  son  of  Dr. 
Cabell  of  Richmond   who   was  killed  in  that  battle  was 


23 

brought  to  Richmond  for  burial  and  his  funeral  took  place 
from  his  father's  home  on  Franklin  street  where  he  lived, 
a  neighbor  of  General  Lee.  I  remember  as  the  remains 
after  the  service  were  borne  down  the  front  steps  and 
through  the  iron  front  gate  the  intense  awe  and  respect  in 
the  face  of  the  young  men  assembled  on  the  pavement 
around  the  entrance  to  the  open  space  in  front  of  the 
house.  It  was  here  I  believe  I  first  formed  the  determi- 
nation to  be  a  cadet  and  strange  to  say  when  I  first  en- 
tered the  cadet  ranks,  the  drill  master  assigned  to  our 
squad  was  Bob  Cabell  a  brother  of  the  cadet  whose  funeral 
I  had  attended  that  day. 

The  Cadets  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  were  in 
number  about  five  or  six  hundred,  were  from  all  over  the 
South  and  ranged  in  age  from  about  sixteen  years  to  about 
twenty-four  or  five.  I  entered  the  Institute  shortly  before 
the  evacuation  of  Richmond  and  enjoyed  the  distinction, 
as  I  have  stated,  of  being  the  youngest  cadet  in  the  corps. 
When  the  cadets  first  came  to  Richmond,  they  marched 
with  singularly  soldier-like  precision  and  carriage  out  Grace 
street  to  the  Fair  grounds  where  they  were  for  a  time 
quartered.  The  uniforms  of  the  boys  as  also  their  food 
began  to  partake  of  the  Confederate  soldier  variety  and  it 
was  pathetic  to  see  some  of  these  boys  marching  in  ranks 
through  Richmond  to  their  quarters  with  pants  torn  or 
worn  out  at  the  bottom  and  variegated  in  outfit,  some  with 
cadet  jackets  and  plain  pants,  others  with  cadet  pants  and 
plain  jackets.  The  Richmond  Alms  house  was  assigned 
to  the  cadets  for  their  quarters.  Life  there  would 
have  been  ordinarily  recognized  as  singularly  trying ;  to 
the  young  men  in  the  corps  it  was  a  perpetual  joy,  alloyed 
alone  by  the  obligation  to  attend  lectures.  The  rooms  that 
were  a  delight  to  them  were  simply  unmentionable.  In 
my  room  about  twelve  feet  wide  and  twenty-four  J:eet  long 
were  sixteen  cadets  who  slept  and  studied  there.  In  the 
day  time  the  mattresses  were  piled  each  on  top  of  the 
other  in  a  single  corner  of  the  room — at  night  time  they 


24 

were  arranged  side  by  side  with  head  against  the  wall. 
One  long  table  occupied  the  center  of  the  room.  It  was 
supposed  to  be  a  study  table  and  was  occupied  at  night  by 
a  favored  one  to  sleep  upon.  In  the  day  time  it  was  never 
occupied  except  by  the  boys  lounging  upon  it  in  lieu  of 
chairs,  smoking  their  pipes  and  gossiping.  Pure  atmos- 
phere day  or  night  in  that  room  was  not  needed  by  those 
young  men  with  their  wonderful  vitality.  In  day  time  the 
air  was  redolent  with  tobacco  smoke  from  their  pipes.  At 
night  time  the  door  was  invariably  kept  closed  by  any  who 
were  up  playing  cards  or  gossiping  after  the  retiring  hour 
to  shut  out  from  view  the  officer  of  the  guard,  who  when- 
ever he  wished  to  investigate  for  such  breaches  of  discip- 
line always  discretely  and  considerately  knocked  before 
entering,  opening  the  door  to  find  everything  in  perfect 
order.  Each  room  had  a  petty  officer  usually  a  corporal 
a  senior  who  was  supposed  to  be  responsible  for  the  good 
order  and  cleanliness  of  the  room.  One  of  the  duties  of 
this  senior  was  to  initiate  by  "bucking"  any  new  cadet  in- 
troduced into  his  room.  This  "bucking",  peculiar  to  the 
Institute,  consisted  in  taking  the  new  comer's  right  hand, 
carrying  it  behind  his  back,  twisting  it  around  until  he 
was  compelled  thereby  to  bend  over  when  he  would  be 
struck  by  the  senior  with  a  bayonet  scabbard  on  his  pos- 
terior once  for  each  letter  in  his  name  and  in  the  event  he 
was  without  a  middle  name  he  was  given  the  right  to  select 
one  and  upon  failure  to  do  so  was  given  the  name  Constan- 
tinople for  its  many  letters.  There  upon  he  was  dubbed 
a  "rat",  which  name  he  bore  for  one  year.  He  was  lia- 
ble to  have  trouble  for  the  whole  first  year  and  might  have 
to  take  another  bucking  or  stand  up  to  a  fight,  which 
usually  was  brought  about  in  a  formal  way  and  was  a  great 
affair.  The  corporal  of  our  room  was  a  mild  mannered 
gentlemanly  fellow  named  Bayard  of  Georgia,  whose  father 
was.  I  believe,  in  the  Confederate  Congress  from  that 
State.  After  bucking  me  and  permitting  me  to  chose  Asa 
for  mv  middle  name  he  dubbed  me  "mouse"  and  stated 


L'.) 

to  me  that  if  any  one  attempted  to  give  me  any  trouble 
to  let  him  know.  No  trouble  was  there  though  for  me,  it 
was  one  constant  stretch  of  delightful  experiences.  The 
association  with  older  boys  and  men  who  treated  me  not 
simply  as  an  equal  but  from  my  youth  and  boyishness 
showed  me  every  favor  rendered  my  life  one  of  joyous 
ease.  I  was  informed  by  the  cadet  whose  name  imme- 
diately preceded  mine  in  roll  call  of  my  company  that  any 
time  I  wanted  to  get  off  to  let  him  know  and  he  would 
answer  twice,  once  for  himself,  once  for  me.  I  was  intro- 
duced by  a  friendly  cadet  to  the  apothecary's  assistant 
who  turned  an  honest  dollar  in  selling  surreptitiously  to 
the  boys  ginger  cakes  and  pies  at  a  thousand  per  cent 
profit.  I  was  recommended  to  old  "Judge",  the  negro 
head  cook  and  steward,  who  black  as  coal  was  with  the 
boys  the  most  popular  person  in  the  corps,  but  for  his 
favors  which  usually  comprised  an  extra  allowance  of 
bread,  expected  a  suitable  remembrance.  A  room  I  have 
here  described  could  furnish  no  more  than  living  quarters 
for  the  number  occupying  it,  and  how  any  studying  could 
be  done  at  night  by  two  dull  tallow  candles,  the  only  lights 
was  inexplicable.  Toilets  were  performed  in  a  general 
wash  room,  adjoining  a  larger  room  where  all  trunks  were 
kept  and  these  two  rooms  were  on  the  same  stoop  or  porch 
and  a  little  apart  from  the  living  rooms  that  all  adjoined. 
If  meagre  fare  contributed  to  good  health,  the  boys  were 
entitled  to  the  extraordinary  health  they  possessed  with 
such  surroundings.  A  typical  breakfast  was  "growley", 
bread  and  Confederate  coffee.  Sometimes  sorghum 
molasses  took  the  place  of  "growley."  This  latter  dish 
was  quite  watery,  being  a  hash  of  beef,  potatoes  and 
onions.  A  typical  dinner  was  boiled  Irish  potatoes,  boiled 
corned  beef  and  bread.  Meals  were  served  in  the  large 
dining  room  in  the  basement  at  plain  pine  tables  with  no 
covering  each  table  seating  about  one  dozen.  At  the  head 
of  the  table  stood  the  large  dish  of  growley  or  the  corn- 
beef  and  at  each  cadet's  plate  was  his  half  loaf  of  bread. 


26 

It  required  practice  and  expertness  to  slide  ones  tin  plate 
over  the  table,  to  the  "growley"  dish  for  a  helping  and 
some  art  to  secure  at  long  distance  the  favorable  disposi- 
tion of  the  cadet  sitting  at  the  head  to  whom  fell  the  de- 
lightful emolument  of  apportioning  the  "growley."  The 
half  of  loaf  of  bread  was  where  old  "Judge"  came  in, 
for  you  always  felt  as  if  you  wanted  more.  Ench  cadet 
was  furnished  his  own  two  pronged  fork  and  a  good  large 
table  knife  both  of  the  rough  bone  handled  variety,  col- 
ored a  dark  brown.  This  fare  with  undue  discipline  would 
have  been  unbearable  but  with  the  free  and  independent 
life  led  there  it  was  only  a  pleasing  passing  incident  in  the 
daily  routine  of  cadet  life  constantly  filled  with  ever  re- 
curring incidents  to  surprise,  interest  and  exhilarate  and 
no  grumbling  ever  took  place,  only  high  spirits  and  the 
fullest  animal  enjoyment  in  the  flush  of  health. 

A  bell  rang  for  classes  or  lectures  and  the  class  rooms 
were  a  wonder.  The  classes  were  so  large  that  many 
would  have  to  stand  up  grouped  together,  usually  near 
the  door.  Before  the  lecture  was  finished  the  groups  would 
be  greatly  thinned  out,  for  from  time  to  time  while  the 
professor  was  absorbed  in  his  work  or  inspecting  the  black 
boards  the  door  would  softly  open  and  out  would  slip  some 
member  of  the  group  who  would  softly  close  the  door  and 
walk  past  the  windows  of  the  class  room  as  naturally  as 
if  he  were  on  a  mission,  the  only  evidence  of  irregularity 
being  the  exceedingly  expert  quick  way  with  which  he 
vanished  through  the  door.  Another  result  of  the  large 
classes  was  the  effort  to  test  the  students  by  requiring 
several  to  recite  at  once,  as  one  at  a  time  would  never 
have  reached  around.  This  was  supposed  to  be  accom- 
plished by  means  of  the  blackboard,  at  each  of  the  five 
or  six  boards  was  stationed  one  cadet  and  the  same  test 
was  furnished  to  all  at  once.  Out  of  the  entire  number 
at  work  usually  at  least  one  knew  his  task  well.  The 
others  made  a  show  of  great  industry  and  with  much 
waste  of  chalk  and  many  changes  and  corrections  and 


with  a  sharp  eye  on  his  neighbors  work  he  managed  to 
construct  a  passable  performance.  The  last  exhibit  I  saw 
in  the  geography  class  was  a  curiously  drawn  map  in 
chalk  outlining  South  America.  It  was  not  difficult  to 
identify  the  copies  of  various  grades  and  conditions,  nor 
the  original  from  which  made.  I  suppose  the  professor 
was  charitable  in  not  holding  his  students  to  a  too  strict 
accountability.  I  wonder  indeed  how  they  could  do  any 
studying  with  such  conditions  or  surroundings,  instead  of 
showing  the  general  faithfulness  that  they  did  to  their 
work. 

As  I  have  stated  a  fight  was  a  very  formal  affair ;  while 
usually  originating  in  quite  an  unmentionable  way  it  was 
arranged  to  take  place  with  a  full  regard  to  the  proprie- 
ties. One  of  the  sixteen  men  in  my  room  was  a  jew 
named  Lovenstein  from  Richmond.  He  was  a  new  cadet 
like  myself  and  was  therefore  liable  to  have  trouble.  He 
had  declined  to  submit  to  some  indignity  required  of  him 
by  an  older  cadet  and  he  was  thereupon  challenged  to 
fight.  This  latter  he  had  no  way  of  escaping.  It  was 
passed  around  during  the  day  that  there  was  to  be  a  fight 
in  so  and  so's  room  that  night,  I  got  there  in  company 
with  the  men  from  our  room  about  half  after  eight  o'clock, 
the  hour  these  affairs  usually  occurred.  The  room  was 
packed  to  suffocation,  standing  around  an  improvised 
ring.  The  air  was  filled  with  tobacco  smoke  but  there 
was  absolutely  no  talking  or  noise.  In  the  ring  in  the 
center  of  the  room  the  two  fighters  were  facing  each  other. 
My  sympathies  were  with  the  jew  because  he  came  from 
our  room.  A  jew  in  the  South  or  in  Richmond  who  com- 
ported himself  as  a  gentleman  was  received  as  such,  the 
commercialism  that  attached  to  the  race  elsewhere  did  not 
at  that  date  affect  his  status  as  a  gentleman  in  the  South. 
Lovenstein  stood  up  manfully  to  his  task,  with  the  cred- 
itable result  that  secured  for  him  the  regard  of  the  other 
inmates  of  our  room  and  it  soon  became  understood  that 


28 

he   was  to  be  protected   thereafter  and   that  no  further 
trouble  was  to  be  put  up  for  him. 

The  gala  performance  of  the  day  was  at  dress  parade. 
This  occurred  at  five  in  the  afternoon.  The  large  plaza 
fronting  the  full  width  of  the  Alms  House  furnished  a  fine 
parade  ground,  Colouel  Shipp,  a  portly,  dignified  impress- 
ive man  who  at  the  time  of  my  present  writing  is  still  at 
the  Institution  now  as  Superintendent  was  then  the  Com- 
mandant, his  adjutant  was  a  little  man  named  Wood- 
bridge  and  these  two  with  the  well  drilled  corps  as  a  whole 
furnished  the  three  striking  incidents  of  the  parade.  The 
awkward  squads  consisting  of  new  cadets  were  put  through 
simple  evolutions  at  the  same  hour  off  from  the  parade 
ground  at  each  end  of  the  building.  Visitors  in  large 
numbers  assembled  to  watch  each  drill  of  the  corps.  At 
the  close,  the  cadets  were  at  liberty  to  stroll  off  in  the 
neighborhood  for  an  hour  recreation,  and  that  was  lib- 
erally availed  of.  Soldierly  dignity  was  not  invariably 
preserved  in  these  strolls.  Pent  up  youthful  vitality  freed 
from  restraint  showed  itself  in  rough  play  and  upon  one 
occasion  an  older  companion  of  mine  in  the  exuberance 
of  his  spirits  lifted  me  to  his  shoulders  and  completed  his 
walk  bearing  me  with  him  in  this  position  until  his  return 
to  the  restraining  formalities  of  the  Institute  grounds. 
Ones  introduction  to  the  Institute  was  in  strict  military 
discipline;  the  details  of  name,  age,  residence  and  the 
taking  of  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  State  and  to  the 
Confederacy  were  followed  by  a  written  requisition  for  a 
blanket,  mattress,  knife  and  fork,  etc.,  and  an  assignment 
to  a  room  and  company.  Mine  was  B  Company.  A 
sedate  and  dignified  looking  cadet  named  Ross  was  cap- 
tain, a  good,  old  fashioned,  friendly  fellow  named  Roy- 
ston  was  orderly  sergeant.  My  introduction  to  the  cor- 
poral of  my  room  was  through  an  army  officer,  Captain 
Shriver  who  had  recently  graduated  and  who  accompa- 
nied me  and  my  father  on  my  entrance  into  the  Institute. 


29 

General  Smith,  the  Superintendent,  was  only  seen  by 
the  cadets  in  his  private  office  at  the  far  end  of  the  build- 
ing. The  only  visit  I  made  to  him  was  quite  an  event  in 
my  life.  Usually  visits  to  the  Superintendent  were  quite 
serious  affairs,  furnishing  checks  to  exuberant  spirits, 
often  grave  in  consequences.  Therefore  a  notification  that 
your  presence  was  desired  by  the  Superintendent  was  cal- 
culated to  set  the  heart  going  more  rapidly  and  to  stir  the 
memory  for  some  breach  that  must  have  been  discovered. 
The  summons  to  me  one  day  just  as  I  was  about  to  attend 
my  French  lecture  was  as  unattractive  as  attending  the 
lecture.  But  when  I  reached  the  Superintendent's  room 
I  found  there  three  Confederate  soldiers  constituents  of 
my  fathers  and  friends  of  my  family  who  had  come  out 
to  see  me  and  had  secured  permission  for  me  to  accom- 
pany them  back  to  Richmond  to  spend  the  day.  An  event 
of  the  day  was  the  taking  of  a  photograph  in  a  group, 
this  with  a  good  supply  of  peanuts  and  a  visit  to  the 
theatre  furnished  quite  a  full  day  for  us  four,  three  seedy 
and  friendly  Confederate  soldiers  and  a  youthful  cadet 
just  fourteen  years  old.  Their  request  to  Genl.  Smith  to 
allow  me  to  accompany  them  on  their  lark  had  evidently 
appeared  so  unique  that  I  was  struck  with  the  degree  of 
pleasure  it  seemed  to  afford  him  and  my  soldier  friends. 

The  meagre  fare  made  me  yearn  greatly  to  participate 
of  the  food  that  I  knew  was  being  enjoyed  at  my  home 
and  I  was  not  slow  in  availing  myself  of  any  temporary 
leave  I  could  obtain.  One  of  these  occasions  took  place 
just  shortly  before  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  and  upon 
my  return  to  the  Institute  I  was  greeted  by  an  almost 
empty  building.  I  found  the  Corps  had  been  called  out 
the  night  before  to  go  to  the  front,  leaving  me  as  a  younger 
cadet  with  a  number  of  others  as  a  detail  to  guard  the  In- 
stitute. For  the  short  time  we  were  in  charge,  there  was 
of  course  no  lectures  and  little  discipline,  each  one  could 
go  and  come  as  he  chose,  with  the  result  that  my  visits  to 
my  home  board  were  more  interesting  and  in  my  saunters 


along  the  streets  I  began  to  notice  on  the  Saturday  prior 
to  the  evacuation  premonitions  of  coming  trouble.  Great 
activity  was  suddenly  manifested  through  the  various  Con- 
federate Government  departments.  The  Cadets  at  the  In- 
stitute were  extended  permission  to  remove  their  trunks. 
This  was  availed  of  on  Saturday  and  also  on  Sunday  until 
the  Institute  was  practically  abandoned  by  eveiy  one  there, 
but  was  filled  with  the  furniture  and  the  trunks  of  all  the 
absent  cadets,  except  of  those  few  who  had  friends  to  take 
charge  of  them.  Besides  my  own  trunk  I  was  able  to  care 
for  that  of  another  room-mate  and  sent  it  to  him  by  ex- 
press to  his  home  some  weeks  later. 

On  Sunday  morning  the  2d  of  April,  1865,  it  was  ap- 
parent to  anyone  that  the  City  was  to  be  abandoned  by 
the  Confederate  troops.  Great  piles  of  official  documents 
and  papers  of  all  sorts  were  brought  out  from  the  depart- 
ments, piled  up  in  the  centre  of  the  streets  in  separate 
piles  at  short  distances  apart  and  then  set  on  fire  to  be 
destroyed,  some  few  burned  entirely,  others  only  smoul- 
dered and  others  again  failed  to  burn  at  all.  The  result 
seemed  to  depend  on  the  quality  of  the  paper  and  the 
density  of  the  bundles.  From  one  pile  I  took  out  a  roll 
of  Confederate  bonds  with  all  coupons  attached  and  from 
another  pile  a  bundle  of  official  papers  of  various  sorts. 
On  Monday  morning  the  3d  of  April,  I  saw  going  up  Mar- 
shall street  about  daylight  two  Confederate  cavalrymen  on 
foot  who  were  the  very  last  of  the  Confederate  soldiers  to 
leave  Richmond,  on  the  same  morning  about  eleven  o'clock 
I  saw  the  first  Union  soldier  to  enter  Richmond  he  was 
also  a  cavalryman,  riding  up  Broad  street  and  was  near 
Tenth  street  when  I  saw  him  and  was  surrounded  and  fol- 
lowed by  a  howling,  frantic  mob  of  about  five  hundred 
negro  boys,  there  being  no  other  person  except  myself 
that  I  could  see  on  the  street  in  the  vicinity.  Between 
these  two  periods,  the  going  of  the  last  Confederates  and 
the  coming  of  the  first  Union  soldier  stirring  scenes  were 
being  elsewhere  enacted.     I  had  firstgoneout  to  the  Insti- 


tute  to  see  how  matters  stood  there  and  I  found  it  was  in 
possession  of  a  horde  of  men,  women  and  children  from 
all  the  neighborhood  around,  who  had  broken  open  the 
building  and  were  carrying  away  everything  movable, 
furniture,  cadets'  trunks,  books,  guns  and  swords  indeed 
their  vandalism  spared  nothing.  I  went  to  my  room  and 
was  able  to  secure  my  blankets  and  my  knife  and  fork  and 
my  books.  It  was  intensely  distressing  to  observe  the 
property  of  the  cadets  who  were  off  in  the  discharge  of 
their  duty,  boldly  appropriated  and  earned  off  before  my 
eyes  by  these  multitudinous  freebooters  who  preyed  upon 
it  as  if  it  was  so  much  public  spoils  free  to  all  who  chose 
to  help  themselves.  I  tarried  there  a  very  short  while, 
carrying  away  with  me  what  I  had  been  able  to  save  of 
my  own  to  my  home.  In  leaving  I  noticed  that  the  brick 
arsenal  across  the  road  from  the  Institute  had  been  during 
the  night  blown  up  with  such  force  that  the  fresh  dirt  in 
two  graves  alongside  had  been  blown  out.  They  were  the 
graves  of  two  negroes  who  shortly  before  had  been  hung 
on  the  hill  to  the  east  of  the  Institute,  having  been  found 
guilty  of  burglarously  entering  the  cellar  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Moses  D.  Hoge,  the  Presbyterian  minister  in  Richmond, 
out  of  which  they  had  stolen  a  couple  of  hams.  After 
reaching  my  home  I  went  down  to  the  Spotswood  Hotel  at 
the  corner  of  8th  and  Main  streets  just  on  the  edge  of 
where  the  fire  was  raging.  TVhy  the  Confederate  troops 
had  set  fire  as  was  reported  of  them  in  their  evacuation  of 
Richmond  I  could  not  understand.  The  fire  was  most 
disastrous  in  extent  and  in  the  character  of  the  buildings. 
It  was  in  the  business  section;  and  the  post  office,  a 
granite  building  on  Main  street  between  9th  and  10th  in 
which  was  President  Davis'  office  was  the  only  building 
left  standing  within  a  wide  radius.  Scenes  similar  to 
what  I  had  seen  enacted  at  the  Military  Institute  were 
also  taking  place  on  the  edge  of  the  fire  district.  Stores 
were  being  broken  into  and  looted  by  women,  men  and 
boys.     Barrels  of  flour  were  being  rolled  away,  bolts  of 


cloth,  boxes  filled  with  all  sorts  of  commodities,  groceries, 
tobacco,  etc.  In  the  midst  of  this  carnival  of  plunder  a 
lot  of  women,  a  half  dozen  in  number  had  concentrated 
their  attention  on  a  particular  bolt  of  unbleached  coarse 
cotton  cloth  and  in  the  contest  for  it  had  unwound  it  each 
one  pulling  her  way,  others  around  were  carrying  away 
equally  valuable  goods  ad  libitum,  but  these  viragos 
ignored  the  ample  opportunities  elsewhere,  concentrating 
their  energies  on  their  fight  for  this  particular  cloth.  The 
temptation  to  myself  and  to  another  boy  of  my  age  with 
me  was  so  strong  to  incommode  them  in  their  sense- 
less conduct  that  we  took  small  bags  of  tobacco  from  two 
barrels  in  front  of  a  store  under  the  Spotswood  Hotel  and 
pelted  them  with  the  tobacco.  While  thus  engaged  the 
fire  gradually  crept  around  in  the  rear  of  Main  street 
towards  Franklin  and  had  reached  an  arsenal  on  8th  street 
for  making  bomb  shells.  Soon  the  shells  began  to  burst 
and  pieces  flew  in  our  direction,  breaking  windows  and 
scattering  the  crowd,  including  the  fighting  women,  who 
got  away  with  no  plunder  from  that  immediate  locality. 

We  had  spent  the  summer  of  1863  on  the  James  river 
about  twelve  miles  above  Richmond  and  a  visit  I  subse- 
quently paid  there  gave  me  an  opportunity  of  enjoying 
an  experience  that  can  never  be  repeated,  namely  getting 
out  of  Richmond  on  a  Confederate  pass  and  witnessing 
some  of  the  incidents  of  an  historical  raid.  My  father 
had  formed  a  personal  friendship  with  the  family  of  Gen- 
eral Winder  who  was  from  Baltimore,  and  as  all  passes 
had  to  be  obtained  from  General  Winder  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  Richmond  and  it  was  difficult  to  obtain  access  to 
him  at  his  office  on  Main  street  I  went  to  his  house  and 
got  a  pass  from  his  son  who  was  his  aid.  With  this  I 
boarded  the  canal  boat  on  the  James  River  and  Kanawha 
Canal  which  boat  left  every  evening  at  the  foot  of  7th 
street  for  its  hip  up  the  canal.  These  boats  were  fitted 
to  take  a  long  trip,  uncomfortable  though  it  might  be.  It 
was  pulled  by  three  horses  going  at  a  rapid  trot,  the  front 


33 

one  ridden  by  the  driver  who  blew  a  horn  for  the  locks 
and  the  mail  and  to  change  horses.  The  efforts  of  the 
drivers  on  freight  boats  on  these  horns  were  often  artistic 
and  as  musical  as  an  accomplished  bugler,  nothing  of 
that  sort  was  ever  attempted  by  the  boy  who  rode  the 
horses  on  the  passenger  boat.  The  passengers  in  good 
weather  sat  on  camp  stools  on  the  top  of  the  boat  and  a 
man  at  the  end  steered,  at  frequent  intervals  calling  out 
"low  bridge"  at  which  all  on  deck  ducked  their  heads  to 
avoid  the  low  bridges  which  so  frequently  crossed  the 
canal  from  one  portion  of  a  farm  to  another.  The  kitchen 
was  at  the  end  of  the  boat.  In  the  long  saloon  on  each 
side  was  a  seat  running  the  whole  length,  which  was  con- 
verted into  beds  at  night.  In  the  centre  of  the  saloon 
was  a  long  table  upon  which  meals  were  served.  Just 
after  leaving  Eichmond  the  sentry  came  around  to  inspect 
the  passes  and  verify  the  descriptions  they  contained  of 
their  possessors.  He  usually  completed  his  rounds  seven 
or  eight  miles  out  about  the  time  the  canal  boat  reached 
the  "grave  yard"  an  open  space  extending  out  from  the 
canal  and  covered  by  water  in  which  was  sunk  worn  out 
canal  boats. 

When  ready  to  return  to  Richmond  I  was  to  do  so  by 
the  Plank  Road,  but  the  instant  we  struck  this  road  we 
found  it  blocked  by  heavy  trees  that  had  been  cut  down 
and  thrown  across  the  road  so  as  to  render  it  impassable 
for  horse  or  man,  we  quickly  learned  that  this  was  to  in- 
tercept Dahlgrens  raiders  who  were  then  some  distance  up 
the  river  and  were  supposed  to  be  approaching  by  the 
Plank  Road.  All  the  neighborhood  had  sent  their  horses 
out  into  the  woods  in  the  custody  of  the  most  faithful  of 
the  negroes  to  prevent  their  seizure  by  the  raiders,  and 
silverware  and  other  articles  portable  had  been  concealed 
so  that  preparations  were  fully  made  for  the  arrival  of 
Dahlgren's  troops.  This  occurred  the  next  day.  They 
had  crossed  the  river  at  a  ford  a  short  distance  above 
under  the  guidance  of  a  negro  of  the  neighborhood  who 


34 

had  essayed  to  pilot  them  to  Eichmond  and  when  they 
reached  these  obstructions  on  the  Plank  Road  they  were 
compelled  to  deflect  their  course  so  that  they  were  carried 
around  Richmond  instead  of  into  it,  and  here  at  this  point 
where  they  left  the  Plank  road  occurred  an  incident  that 
I  could  not  understand  then  and  do  not  clearly  understand 
now,  they  hung  their  negro  guide.  They  left  his  body 
hanging  and  after  it  was  taken  down  by  residents,  the 
rope  was  cut  into  small  pieces  and  passed  around  as  me- 
mentoes. I  feel  assured  that  Dahlgren's  men  could  not 
impute  to  the  negro  knowledge  of  the  obstructions  in  the 
road,  the  circumstances  enforced  this  conclusion.  The 
obstructions  had  just  been  placed,  their  appearance  made 
this  self  evident.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  had  been  put 
there  during  the  night  by  parties  sent  from  Richmond  and 
were  entirely  unknown  to  persons  in  the  vicinity.  The 
negro  guide  had  been  picked  up  miles  above  at  a  time 
when  it  was  patent  to  any  one  he  could  not  have  known 
of  these  obstructions.  The  slightest  acquaintance  with 
negro  character  during  the  war  should  moreover  have  in- 
formed the  raiders  that  no  negro  would  have  volunteered 
to  pilot  Federal  troops  with  the  intent  of  leading  them 
into  trouble,  or  of  not  performing  for  them  all  he  was 
capable  of,  and  I  can  only  conclude  that  he  was  a  victim 
of  combined  ignorance  of  the  negro  and  irritation  at  being 
intercepted  in  their  progress.  If  they  had  reached  nearer 
to  Richmond  they  would  have  found  almost  every  white 
citizen  in  the  City,  whatever  his  station  or  occupation, 
armed  and  in  the  trenches  around  the  city  awaiting  their 
arrival,  so  that  getting  into  the  City  was  practically  im- 
possible. ' 

The  Confederate  hospitals  in  Richmond  were  possibly 
the  most  interesting  places  for  most  persons.  The  offi- 
cers' hospital  was  at  Richmond  College  at  that  time  in  the 
country  about  a  mile  from  the  built  up  city,  since  then  the 
City  has  built  out  to  and  beyond  it.  The  Seabrook  Hos- 
pital, occupied  exclusively  by  privates,   was  a  collection 


35 

of  one  stoiy  long  frame  buildings  in  the  neighborhood  of 
23d  street  and  Franklin  Street.  The  surgeon  in  chief 
was  Dr.  Gravett  with  whose  family  we  were  intimate  and 
a  feature  of  this  hospital  was  the  delightful  biscuits  made 
there  by  the  cook.  The  Chimborazo  Hospital  was  another 
famous  one.  Between  this  hospital  and  a  point  on  the 
open  ground  across  from  President  Davis'  residence  the 
signal  corps  men  eveiy  night  exchanged  signals  in  prac- 
ticing, a  group  of  men  being  stationed  on  the  hill  near 
the  hospital  with  their  torch  and  another  group  with  a 
torch  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley  in  the  space  next  the 
President's  house.  The  President's  house,  now  the  Con- 
federate Museum,  was  one  of  the  prettiest  houses  in  Rich- 
mond. The  president  met  with  a  sad  loss  there  in  the 
death  of  his  son.  At  the  time  this  occurred  some  one 
started  a  subscription  among  the  children  to  erect  a  monu- 
ment to  the  memory  of  the  child  and  the  names  of  all 
who  subscribed  were  written  on  paper,  it  being  also  there 
written  that  the  monument  was  a  gift  from  the  playmates 
of  the  boy  and  the  paper  was  placed  in  the  monument 
erected  over  the  grave  at  Holywood.  My  name  was  in- 
cluded, but  I  am  sure  that  scarcely  one  in  the  entire 
number  was  in  fact  a  playmate  of  the  boy  who  was  so 
delicate  that  his  only  companion  was  his  nurse. 

The  most  interesting  sights  were  the  fortifications  around 
Richmond.  Out  on  the  Mechanicsville  turnpike  about 
two  miles  beyond  the  Alms  House  was  the  inner  fort  on 
the  North,  this  was  manned  by  a  battery  composed  of 
Norfolk  men  under  command  of  a  Captain  Hendren,  two 
deserters  from  the  Union  Army  were  placed  in  this  bat- 
tery. They  were  treated  in  a  most  friendly  way  by  the 
men,  but  they  seemed  out  of  place  themselves  and  awk- 
ward and  strange.  Why  they  should  have  deserted  I 
could  not  understand,  for  an  exchange  of  the  ample  fare 
of  the  Union  soldier  with  their  luxuries  for  the  combread 
and  bacon  of  the  Confederates  could  not  have  been  an  at- 
traction.   This  same  pike  while  the  Battle  of  Cold  Harbor 


36 

was  in  progress  presented  an  intensely  interesting  appear- 
ance, clear  from  Richmond  to  the  narrow  Chickahomini 
River  and  beyond,  it  was  lined  with  soldiers,  horses  and 
wagons  hurrying  to  and  fro  and  one  of  the  most  attractive 
sights  was  the  stream  of  Union  prisoners  just  captured 
and  being  marched  into  Richmond.  One  prisoner  I  recall 
as  a  common  type,  he  was  a  German  emigrant  utterly 
unable  to  speak  a  word  of  English,  dressed  in  a  new 
Zouave  uniform  of  guady  colors  and  he  evidently  labored 
under  the  delusion  that  he  was  going  to  better  his  condi- 
tion by  exchanging  from  a  fighter  in  the  Union  army  to  a 
prisoner  in  the  Confederacy.  I  believe  if  he  had  had  any 
conception  of  the  restrictive  diet  of  the  prisoner  or  Con- 
federate soldier,  for  both  fared  about  alike,  he  would  have 
been  less  easily  captured,  and  the  bounty  and  substitute 
money  that  no  doubt  had  been  securely  disposed  of  by 
him  at  his  enlistment  were  going  to  look  less  alluring  in  a 
Confederate  prison  than  the  future  these  pictured  to  him 
while  he  enjoyed  his  exceedingly  brief  army  experience. 

The  most  interesting  fortifications  were  on  the  James 
River  at  Drury's  Bluff  about  seven  miles  below  Richmond, 
and  a  sort  of  an  excursion  steamer  enabled  visitors  to  in- 
spect the  fortifications.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Drury's 
Bluff  further  down  the  River  was  the  Howlett  House,  his- 
torical for  being  at  various  periods  first  in  the  Confederate 
lines  and  then  in  the  Union.  Upon  a  visit  I  paid  to  it  in 
Company  with  Col.  Herbert  of  the  17th  Virginia  Regi- 
ment and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Perkins,  the  Chaplain,  we  ob- 
tained a  magnificent  view  of  the  surrounding  country  and 
of  both  armies,  out*  own  and  the  Union.  Dutch  Gap  was 
in  the  distance  and  Butlers  Tower  was  in  front  of  us  and 
down  on  the  river  shore  below  us  were  thousands  of  shells 
that  had  been  fired  by  the  Union  batteries  and  had  failed 
to  explode.  In  returning  from  the  Howlett  House  to  the 
station  of  the  17th  Virginia,  sharpshooters  in  the  Union 
lines  began  firing  at  us  and  the  bullets  threw  up  the  dirt 
around  us  in  a  lively  fashion.     I  feel  convinced  the  sharp- 


37 

shooters  were  trying  to  see  how  near  they  could  come  to 
us  without  hitting  us,  my  companions  however  preferred 
to  get  down  below  the  raise  in  the  ground.  The  same 
spirit  of  play  I  think  must  have  actuated  the  batteries 
that  were  continually  firing  shells  that  went  clear  over  the 
fortifications  and  way  behind,  possibly  a  mile  or  so.  The 
fortifications  were  constructed  in  a  veiy  formidable  way. 
The  front  of  the  raised  earth  was  a  labyrinth  of  brush  and 
sharpened  stakes  pointing  outward.  Inside  of  the  forti- 
fications were  deep  ravines  cut  in  the  earth,  turning  and 
twisting  with  pillars  of  earth  at  intervals,  so  as  to  permit 
the  sentries  to  approach  the  breastworks  without  exposure. 
The  quarters  of  the  soldiers  were  usually  dugouts,  covered 
with  raised  wooden  tops.  The  sleeping  bunks  were  below 
the  ground  and  each  location  had  a  fire  place,  one  of  my 
nights  was  spent  in  one  of  these  with  a  corporal  of  one 
of  the  companies  of  the  17th  Virginia.  His  room  mate 
was  absent.  Before  entering  he  handed  me  a  copy  of 
David  Copperfield  and  this  was  my  first  introduction  to 
the  delights  of  Dickens'  works.  The  corporal  also  offered 
me  a  flour  biscuit,  the  only  one  he  had;  as  I  knew  the 
meaning  of  it  to  him  I  declined.  During  the  night  we 
were  aroused  by  a  night  attack  at  the  front  a  few  hundred 
yards  away,  which  compelled  my  room  mate  to  go  there. 
I  had  never  heard  so  many  bullets  whistle  over  head  before 
and  the  sound  was  more  intense  from  the  stillness  of  the 
night,  the  attack,  however,  was  of  short  duration. 

The  most  interesting  scene  in  camp  life  was  the  church 
service  on  Sunday  night.  The  soldiers  were  in  winter 
quarters  and  a  good  sized  frame  tabernacle  had  been  erected 
with  seats  around  on  boards  very  much  like  a  circus.  The 
auditorium  was  crowded,  of  course  exclusively  with  sol- 
diers and  a  more  impressive  sendee  and  a  more  deeply 
interested  and  serious  set  of  men  I  never  saw.  The  two 
opposing  lines,  Confederate  and  Union,  had  been  so  long 
fixed  at  this  point  and  they  were  respectively  so  securely 
intrenched  that  matters  looked  quite  permanent  and  these 


38 

conditions  led  to  interchange  of  friendly  relations  between 
the  two  sides  leading  to  exchange  of  newspapers,  tobacco, 
etc.  The  slenderness  of  the  Confederate  soldiers  equip- 
ment was  constantly  in  evidence  and  the  contrast  with 
his  bounteously  supplied  enemy  made  his  situation  often 
pathetic.  Upon  one  occasion  during  this  visit  of  mine  to 
the  17th  Virginia  the  quartermaster's  wagon  came  around 
to  dole  out  a  few  articles  and  among  the  things  given  was 
a  cotton  shirt  to  a  middle  aged  member  of  a  Norfolk  Com- 
pany which  excited  the  jealousy  and  anger  of  a  young 
man  in  the  same  company  who  declared  that  the  older  was 
not  entitled  to  the  shirt  and  did  not  need  it  and  that  he 
had  money  hidden  away.  The  scarcity  of  food  in  Rich- 
mond several  times  led  to  distressing  scenes,  resulting  in 
some  instances  to  public  riots,  in  which  women  seemed  to 
take  the  leading  part.  Their  outciy  for  bread  gave  to 
these  affairs  the  designation  of  "bread  riots"  and  several 
of  a  very  serious  nature  took  place  during  the  closing 
years  of  the  war  resulting  in  considerable  destruction  of 
property  in  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  mob  to  break  into 
stores  and  resulting  also  in  great  suffering  and  excitement 
before  the  disturbances  were  quelled. 

It  was  an  experience  not  possessed  by  many  to  have 
seen  from  time  to  time  pass  through  Richmond  the  Con- 
federate soldiers  that  composed  the  entire  army  of  Gen- 
eral Lee.  Added  to  this  however  it  was  my  fortune  after 
the  war  to  see  the  entire  armies  of  General  Grant  and 
General  Sherman  pass  through  Richmond  on  their  march 
to  Washington.  They  all  passed  one  point  where  I  was 
stationed,  namely,  at  Broad  and  First  streets  ontheirway 
up  Broad  street  and  out  the  Brook  Turnpike.  There  were 
three  features  that  were  prominent  in  connection  with 
these  Union  armies,  one  was  the  well  dressed,  well  kept 
appearaace  of  the  soldiers,  another  the  vast  number  of 
their  bands  of  music  in  marked  contrast  with  scarcely 
any  in  our  army  and  another  the  great  number  of  horses 
the  cavalrymen  possessed,  some  had  three  and  four  horses 


39 

each,  and  I  concluded  that  the  South  through  which  the 
Union  armies  passed,  must  have  been  pretty  well  denuded 
of  its  horses. 

After  the  war  the  President's  house  was  used  as  head 
quarters  for  the  general  in  command  of  the  Union  troops 
in  Richmond.  And  as  my  father  was  the  only  Homeo- 
pathic physician  in  Richmond  and  very  many  Federal 
officers  with  their  families  preferred  homeopathy  and  em- 
ployed him  I  had  favorable  opportunities  for  knowing  cer- 
tain things  about  which  some  confusion  subsequently 
existed.  This  knowledge  enabled  me  to  correct  a  state- 
ment some  years  since  that  was  circulated  extensively 
through  the  public  press  with  reference  to  General  Lee. 
It  had  been  declared  by  General  Adam  Badeau  that  im- 
mediately upon  the  close  of  the  war  when  General  Lee 
returned  to  Richmond  he  and  his  family  were  the  recipients 
of  aid  from  General  Grant  who  practically  provided  for 
the  support  of  General  Lee's  family.  I  knew  all  the  cir- 
cumstances which  gave  a  plausible  foundation  for  this 
story.  My  father,  as  I  have  stated,  was  Mrs.  Lee's  phy- 
sician; he  was  also  the  physician  among  other  Federal 
officers  of  General  Peter  Michie,  the  Federal  quartermas- 
ter general.  An  offer  court euosly  and  with  delicacy  was 
made  to  General  Lee  of  any  aid  the  temporary  situation  of 
his  family  might  require.  General  Lee  however  was  under 
no  necessity  of  availing  himself  of  this  aid  and  none  in 
consequence  was  given .  General  Lee  had  devoted  friends , 
able  and  willing  to  render  any  aid  that  might  have  been 
needed  to  whom  he  would  naturally  have  looked  for  aid 
had  such  been  required.  He  was  at  that  time,  as  I  have 
stated,  living  in  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Stewart,  a  wealthy 
Scotchman  who  had  settled  long  before  the  war  in  Rich- 
mond. Whatever  may  have  been  the  arrangement  for 
rent  I  understand  that  Mr.  Stewart  declined  to  accept 
anything  in  settlement,  and  as  a  Scotchman  can  not  be 
made  to  recede  from  his  position  no  doubt  no  rent  was 
paid. 


40 

One  of  the  incidents  to  the  rehabilitation  of  Richmond 
after  the  evacuation  and  the  accompanying  disastrous  fire 
was  the  great  influx  of  mercantile  firms  from  the  North 
with  every  kind  of  goods  imaginable.  Why  they  should 
have  rushed  in  thus  with  their  oceans  of  merchandise  to 
sell  to  impoverished  Confederates  was  to  me  a  mystery. 
As  might  be  imagined  prices  fell  very  low  and  large  num- 
bers of  the  new  comers  failed  completely.  Another  inci- 
dent of  the  new  order  of  things  was  the  flooding  of  the 
City  with  counterfeit  money,  particularly  small  notes  for 
fractional  amounts  of  a  dollar,  some  of  the  counterfeits 
being  wretched  productions.  Another  feature  was  the 
way  in  which  architects  and  builders  from  the  North  step- 
ped into  help  rebuild  the  burned  district,  resulting  in  bet- 
ter buildings  than  before,  but  with  in  many  cases  no  com- 
mensurate  profit  to  the  builders.  At  that  time  was  first 
introduced  into  Richmond  the  ground  rent  system  that 
prevails  so  extensively  in  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia. 
The  first  house  under  this  system  was  built  on  a  lot  where 
had  stood  the  house  from  which  salt  orders  had  been  issued 
during  the  war.  The  salt  mines  belonged  to  and  were 
worked  by  the  State  and  a  system  of  free  distribution  was 
inaugurated  in  consequence  of  the  scarcity  and  the  neces- 
sity of  salt  so  that  each  householder  depending  upon  the 
size  of  his  family  was  entitled  to  receive  gratuitously  a 
certain  quantity  weekly  for  which  an  order  was  issued  to 
him. 

The  most  gruesome  sight  during  the  war  was  to  see  the 
vast  numbers  of  wounded  Confederate  soldiers  brought 
into  Richmond  in  the  trains.  This  was  constantly  occur- 
ring and  was  most  noticeable  during  the  great  battles  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Fredericksburg.  The  attention  given 
to  the  wounded  appeared  to  be  scant  before  reaching 
Richmond.  And  they  were  brought  down  on  the  Richmond 
and  Fredericksburg  Railroad  and  unloaded  on  Broad 
street  to  be  taken  to  the  hospitals  very  much  as  they  were 
taken  from  the  field  of  battle.     How  they  were  able  to 


41 

pass  through  the  suffering  they  must  have  endured  before 
reaching  the  hospital  was  a  miracle,  only  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  life  of  exposure  to  the  open  air,  endurance  and 
their  strong  vitality. 

Blockade  running  was  carried  on  as  an  extensive  busi- 
ness all  through  the  war,  but  reached  its  highest  state  of 
accomplishment  in  the  closing  year  before  the  fall  of  Rich- 
mond. It  was  of  a  two  fold  character;  one,  of  ships  with 
Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  as  the  port  and  the  other  of 
individuals  who  crossed  the  Potomac  at  night  usually  land- 
ing at  Leonardtown,  Charles  County,  Maryland.  The 
ships  took  out  cargoes  of  cotton,  as  this  was  about  the 
only  article,  unless  it  was  tobacco,  left  to  be  exported  from 
the  Southern  Confederacy  and  they  brought  in  return  a 
miscellaneous  cargo,  not  very  extensive  and  not  very  large, 
most  of  the  cotton  shipments  winding  up  as  credits  abroad 
in  many  cases  for  agents  of  the  Confederate  government, 
in  other  cases  for  individuals,  either  singly  or  as  syndi- 
cates. For  it  became  common  in  Richmond  for  a  number 
of  gentlemen  to  form  a  combination  and  make  a  shipment 
of  cotton  by  a  blockade  runner  for  the  profit  it  furnished. 
Almost  all  the  ships  that  ran  the  blockade  in  and  out  of 
Wilmington  flew  the  British  flag  and  were  English  boats, 
Blockade  running  on  the  Potomac  was  another  considera- 
tion. Its  ordeal  can  best  be  illustrated  by  an  attempt 
made  by  my  mother  and  a  friend  of  hers  under  unusual 
favorable  circumstances.  The  trip  from  Richmond  to  the 
Potomac  had  to  be  made  by  private  conveyance  of  some 
sort  for  there  were  no  public  vehicles  or  way  of  getting 
them  and  for  entertainment  en  route  reliance  would  have 
to  be  placed  on  such  friendly  housing  and  entertainment 
as  could  be  secured  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  country 
through  which  one  passed.  There  were  no  hotels  or 
taverns,  and  as  the  inhabitants  were  not  over  well  sup- 
plied, were  in  constant  apprehension  of  the  questionable 
strangers  who  made  a  business  of  blockade  running,  it- 
can  be  conceived  what  difficulties  must  be  encountered  bv 


42 

any  one  who  adopted  this  method  of  passing  through  the 
lines.  It  would  have  been  easier  perhaps  to  have  gone  by 
a  flag  of  truce.  A  well  known  Southerner  who  is  now  in 
a  prominent  position  in  New  York  City  had  attention  at- 
tracted to  him  by  two  occurrences  that  took  place  in  his 
younger  days.  He  was  a  general  in  the  Confederate  army 
and  he  resigned  and  joined  the  army  as  a  private,  that 
was  quite  sensational.  Again  he  went  out  one  day  in  front 
of  the  outer  line  of  breastworks  near  Petersburg  to  ex- 
change newspapers  or  some  other  thing  as  was  the  custom 
during  the  interims  of  fighting  and  two  soldiers  from  the 
Union  lines  came  out  half  way  to  meet  him.  When  they 
reached  midway  between  the  breastworks  on  each  side 
each  Union  soldier  took  him  by  the  arms  and  marched 
him  into  their  own  lines.  That  was  more  sensational  still 
and  was  susceptible  of  several  constructions.  The  inci- 
dent subjected  him  to  undoubtedly  unjust  criticism  and 
the  time  construction  was  that  the  Union  soldiers  had 
violated  the  conventional  arrangement  under  which  the 
beligerants  exchanged  small  articles,  but  it  indicated  that 
the  Union  side  were  not  averse  to  "receiving"  all  that 
came  and  that  going  by  flag  of  trace  would  have  been  less 
difficult  on  the  Union  side  than  on  the  Confederate  and 
that  persons  on  a  peaceful  mission,  particularly  ladies 
need  not  have  selected  the  hardships  of  a  Potomac  block- 
ade running  to  have  gotten  through  the  lines. 

My  two  sisters  had  been  left  North  to  attend  school  on 
my  father's  exchange  as  a  state  prisoner  andmy  mother's 
mission  was  to  visit  them.  My  father's  official  and  pro- 
fessional relations  secured  for  the  trip  from  the  Confeder- 
ate government  a  covered  ambulance,  two  mules  and  a 
colored  driver.  They  were  also  supplied  by  personal 
friends  with  letters  of  introduction  to  persons  at  whose 
houses  they  expected  to  stop  on  the  route  to  the  Potomac. 
The  trip  was  to  occupy  about  three  days  and  the  point  of 
destination  was  as  usual  opposite  Leonardtown,  Charles 
County,  Maryland.     The  first  day  was  spent  in  a  tiring, 


43 

uninteresting  ride  over  bad  roads  and  the  days  journey 
terminated  at  the   hospitable   house  of  Muscoe  Garnett 
near  Newton  in  King  and  Queen  County  at  whose  house  I 
subsequently  spent  a  delightful    summer,  the  next  days 
journey  similar  in  character  terminated  at  the  equally  hos- 
pitable home  of  the  Warings  on  the  Rapakannoek  River 
in  Essex  County,  where  I  also  some  years  after  visited. 
The  third  days  journey,  just   like   the  two   proceeding, 
brought  them  to  the  Potomac  in  Westmorland  County  at 
the  Wirt  House.     The  following  day  arrangements  were 
made  for  effecting  a  crossing  of  the  river  and  this  was 
termed  "running  the  blockade."     Success   required   the 
trip  to  be  at  night,  without   moon   or   stars,    with  good 
weather  and  smooth  water,  a  rather  difficult  combination 
where  the  river  was  several  miles  wide  and  Union   patrol 
boats  constantly  on  the  lookout  for  blockade  runners.     At 
the  appointed  time,    with   conditions    satisfactory,    their 
boat  cleared  the  shore,  when  suddenly  the  moon  came  out, 
a  patrol  boat  was  made  out  in  the  distance   and   the   sail 
boat  was  compelled  in  consequence  to  return,   with  no 
further  chance  of  success  that  night.     After  several  days 
of  waiting  and  constant  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the 
boatman  to  make  the  venture,  in  which  at  every  attempt, 
he  ran  the  risk  of  losing  both  his  boat  and  his  liberty,  they 
were  fain  to  abandon  the  attempt,   this  being  a  common 
experience  in  blockade   running.     And  they   were   com- 
pelled to  return  again  to  Richmond.     Successful  blockade 
running  across  the  Potomac  was  usually  done  by  two  only, 
the  boatman  and  one  passenger,  usually  a  man,  a  woman 
blockade  runner  added  to  the  difficulties  and  lessened  a 
successful  issue.     Two  women  would  constitute  almost  in- 
superable difficulties  and  it  had  better   been   left   unat- 
tempted.     It  was  easier  to  go  by  ship  from  Wilmington  to 
Nassau,  the  usual  rendezvous  of  blockade  runners  and  then 
from  that  point  by  a  ship  to  New  York;  for  blockade  run- 
ning in  and  out  of  Wilmington  was  common  and  easy. 


44 

While  personal  travel  through  the  lines  was  as  shown 
difficult  and  full  of  excitement  and  trials,  communication 
by  letter  was  easy  and  frequent.  This  was  by  way  of  flag 
of  truce  boat.  Every  letter  however  was  opened,  read 
and  stamped  as  inspectad  and  if  it  was  free  from  suspic- 
ion and  about  personal  matter  only  it  reached  its  destina- 
tion. Any  suspicious  circumstances  however  such  as 
ambiguity  of  expression,  or  anything  of  hidden  meaning 
which  might  convey  information  regarded  as  detrimental 
to  the  government  subjected  the  letter  to  oblivion. 

After  the  war  closed  the  condition  of  the  Confederate 
graves  in  Hollywood  cemetery  was  so  deplorable  that  a 
general  call  was  extended  to  all  ex-Confederate  soldiers  in 
Richmond  to  volunteer  to  put  them  in  condition.  At  the 
time  appointed  great  numbers  assembled  at  the  Cemetery 
for  the  purpose,  including  very  many  old  cadets.  Each 
particular  division  of  the  graves  had  a  certain  number 
assigned  to  it  and  there  fell  to  the  cadets  a  plot  in  the 
lower  ground  comprising  several  hundred  graves.  Each 
one  of  the  cadets  was  furnished  a  hoe  and  the  task  that 
at  once  confronted  us  was  how  we  were  to  distinguish  the 
precise  location  of  each  grave.  None  of  these  graves 
were  marked  and  all  any  of  us  knew  was  that  wherever 
there  was  any  indication  of  the  grave,  there  had  been 
placed  the  remains  of  a  Confederate  soldier.  It  seems  to 
me  that  however  loving  our  motive,  we  had  better  left 
undone  our  volunteer  task,  for  all  the  workers  in  common 
solved  their  difficulty  in  identifying  exact  outlines  of  graves 
by  raising  at  regular  and  even  intervals  the  little  mounds 
that  were  supposed  to  cover  the  places  of  interment,  so 
that  if  any  indications  previously  existed  as  to  the  precise 
location  of  any  grave  whereby  some  one  familiar  with  the 
surroundings  would  have  identified  it,  these  were  effect- 
ually destroyed  by  this  service  in  putting  in  decent  order 
the  burial  places  of  the  dead.  And  it  was  utterly  impos- 
sible thereafter  to  tell  the  exact  resting  place  of  any  whose 
grave  was  unmarked,  the  condition  of  very  nearly  all. 


45 

One  of  the  most  disastrous  results  of  the  war  was  the 
effect  ou  the  education  of  the  men  of  the  South.  With 
few  exceptions  all  the  young  men  at  college  or  school  old 
enough  to  volunteer  did  so,  with  the  resulting  loss  of  four 
years  of  the  best  period  of  their  life  for  studying.  At 
the  close  of  the  war,  the  necessities  of  some  were  such 
that  providing  for  themselves  or  their  families  effectually 
removed  from  them  the  possibilities  of  further  education. 
Others  again  straggled  under  most  adverse  conditions  and 
with  many  privations  to  acquire  the  requisite  means  to 
complete  their  education,  working  on  farms  and  engaging 
in  manual  labor  that  always  theretofore  had  been  rele- 
gated exclusively  to  the  negro  slaves.  In  many  cases  the 
period  for  accomplishing  the  result  dragged  on  for  years 
after  the  close  of  the  war  and  even  as  late  as  1871,  six 
years  after  the  close  of  the  war  there  was  in  the  same  law 
class  with  me  at  the  University  of  Virginia  a,  number  of 
ex-Confederate  soldiers  and  among  the  nineteen  of  us  who 
received  the  degree  of  B.  L.  were  two,  one  of  whom  had 
been  a  Captain  and  the  other  a  Major  in  the  Confederate 
army. 

The  condition  of  the  ex-Confederates  residing  in  the 
country  was  measurably  better  than  those  in  the  cities  and 
towns,  for  the  former  could  at  the  least  scrape  together  in 
one  way  or  another  some  sort  of  a  living.  In  the  towns 
and  cities  however  through  the  South  the  struggle  to  ob- 
tain a  footing  was  more  intense,  and  among  the  methods 
adopted  to  furnish  employment  to  ex-Confederates  was 
one  of  almost  national  character  involving  what  was  then 
regarded  as  a  very  large  capital  with  prospects  supposed 
to  be  brilliant  both  in  furnishing  extensive  employment 
for  competent  men  and  seeming  great  financial  returns 
for  its  promoters  and  subscribers,  and  that  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Southern  Express  Company.  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnson  was  made  president  of  the  company 
and  almost  every  officer  and  employee  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest  was  an  ex- Confederate  soldier.     These  two 


46 

pleas,  employment  of  ex- Confederates  and  great  financial 
returns,  particularly  the  former  were  the  basis  upon  which 
the  subscriptions  to  the  stock  were  generally  secured.  An 
additional  incentive  was  that  only  a  small  cash  payment 
(usually  ten  pei  cent  of  the  subscription)  was  required 
from  the  stockholders .  The  balance  it  was  supposed  would 
likely  be  made  up  from  profits.  From  the  start  liberal 
salaries  were  paid  and  assiduously  drawn.  Nearly  all  the 
transportation  business  was  done  on  credit,  the  railroads 
and  transportation  companies  being  exceedingly  liberal  in 
this,  with  the  rapid  result  from  inexperience  in  such  busi- 
ness and  competition  against  an  old  established  company 
and  its  skilled  employees,  that  the  Southern  Express  Com- 
pany soon  ceased  to  do  business,  owing  a  vast  amount  of 
debts  to  its  employees  for  unpaid  salaries  and  to  trans- 
portation companies  for  unpaid  freight.  The  sequel  re- 
sulted in  an  assignment  by  the  company  for  the  benefit  of 
creditors  and  an  administration  ot  its  assets  in  the  Chanc- 
ery Court  of  Eichmoud,  where  the  stockholders  were  as- 
sessed their  unpaid  subscriptions,  resulting  in  a  crop  of 
suits  to  collect  them  that  extended  through  many  states  of 
the  Union,  particularly  Virginia,  Maryland,  Missouri  and 
New  York. 

The  war  had  a  very  slight  effect  on  the  negro's  charac- 
ter as  a  slave  in  the  South,  so  far  as  he  was  capable  of 
comprehending  and  entertaining  any  sympathies,  most  of 
the  slaves  had  a  vague  idea  that  success  to  the  Union 
Army  meant  freedom  for  the  slave  and  hence  naturally 
they  felt  no  ill  toward  this  result,  neither  did  they  en- 
tertain ill  will  towards  those  who  had  held  them  in  slavery, 
for  contrary  to  the  general  impression  of  the  North  the 
negro  slaves  were  treated  with  the  greatest  consideration, 
not  harshly,  but  just  the  reverse,  Any  master  who  omit- 
ted to  properly  clothe  and  feed  his  slaves,  to  assiduously 
care  for  them  in  sickness  and  old  age  and  to  treat  them 
justly  and  humanely  was  not  only  ostracised  by  his  neigh- 
bors and  acquaintances  but  his  family   suffered   seriously 


m  social  positions  so  that  no  slaveholder  was  to  be  found  who 
could  weather  the  trials  to  which  an  acknowledged  brutal 
master  was  subjected.  This  tenderness  for  the  slave  was 
so  pronounced  that  all  persons  who  occupied  a  dominant 
position  with  reference  to  him,  such  as  the  overseer  or 
slave  dealer  were  regarded  as  occupying  an  inferior  posi- 
tion and  were  excluded  from  social  relations  with  the  slave 
holders,  not  from  an  imagined  superiority  of  the  latter, 
as  sometimes  alleged,  but  purely  from  the  "off en siveness" 
of  their  occupation.  And  I  believe  it  can  be  said  with  the 
endorsement  of  all  who  knew  that  the  negro  as  a  whole 
was  better  cared  for,  and  healthier  and  happier  in  slavery 
than  in  freedom. 

The  hotels  in  Richmond  that  remained  in  operation  clear 
up  until  the  evacuation  by  the  Confederate  troops  were 
the  Spotswood  at  the  corner  ot  Main  street  andSth  street, 
the  American  on  Main  street  opposite  the  Post  Office,  and 
the  Powhatan  at  the  corner  of  Broad  and  11th  streets. 
The  Spottswood  was  the  leading  hotel  and  there  the  higher 
Confederate  officers  stopped  when  in  Richmond.  It  was 
burned  shortly  after  the  war  closed.  The  American  was 
a  popular  hotel,  well  patronized  by  Confederate  soldiers, 
officers  and  men,  and  always  crowded.  It  was  burned  in 
the  fire  at  the  evacuation.  The  Powhatan  was  patronized 
to  a  certain  extent  by  Confederate  soldiers,  the  generality 
of  its  patrons  were  members  of  the  Legislature. 

Of  course  society  entertainments  in  Richmond  during 
the  war  partook  of  the  nature  that  pertained  to  everything 
else.  They  were  exceedingly  few  and  such  as  took  place 
were  novel  or  unique  in  character.  TVTien  a  city  of  the 
staid  and  fixed  character  like  Richmond  increased  its  resi- 
dent population  in  a  few  months  from  sixty  thousand  people 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  or  more,  the  new- 
comers being  largely  refugees  from  all  parts  of  the  South, 
together  with  Confederate  officials  and  their  families,  also 
from  all  over  the  south  and  when  in  addition  this  new  ele- 
ment furnished  very  much  of  the  life  of  the  Confederate 


48 

capitol  it  may  be  comprehended  what  was  the  result 
socially.  Overhanging  the  city  was  the  constant  menace 
and  stir  of  the  great  conflict.  So  that  while  entertaining 
constantly  took  place,  it  was  unobtrusive  and  exceedingly 
simple.  The  most  elaborate  receptions  were  those  at  the 
Governor's  Mansion,  simple  as  they  were.  The  more 
prominent  given  by  any  private  individual  was  by  a  well 
known  and  wealthy  merchant  where  the  refreshments  con- 
sisted exclusively  of  ice  cream  and  pound  cake.  The 
usual  and  popular  method  of  entertaining  were  what  might 
probably  now  be  styled  evening,  not  afternoon  teas ;  in 
place  however  of  the  elaborate  refreshments  which  might 
now  be  expected  to  be  found  at  such  was  then  really  served 
tea,  then  a  rare  and  wonderful  luxury.  In  addition  to  the 
tea  served  in  cups  and  handed  around  to  those  sitting  in 
the  parlor  was  also  served  buttered  bread,  very  seldom 
cake ;  it  being  remembered  that  white  sugar  was  also  a 
great  rarity  in  war  times.  I  attended  a  wedding  of  the 
daughter  of  one  of  the  most  prominent  gentlemen  in  Rich- 
mond. There  were  no  refreshments  and  there  were  no 
presents  whatsoever  to  the  bride.  I  do  not  think  there 
was  at  the  close  of  the  war  a  single  jewelry  store  in  ex- 
istence in  the  City. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  war  was  the 
intense  animosity  engendered  among  neighbors  with  sym- 
pathies on  opposite  sides.  Those  who  were  formerly  most 
intimate  friends  now  became  most  bitter  enemies,  not  only 
ceasing  all  intercourse,  but  ready  to  inflict  contumely  and 
injury  on  each  other.  This  spirit  was  not  so  apparent  in 
the  South  because  with  almost  unanimity  the  Southern 
people  accepted  the  results  of  secession  whatever  opposi- 
tion they  may  have  first  offered.  But  in  the  North  on  the 
border  line  where  there  was  a  numerous  Southern  element 
within  the  Northern  lines  this  bitter  antagonism  was  pro- 
nounced, the  more  so  against  all  known  to  be  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  South.  No  more  typical  place  existed  for 
this  than  Baltimore.     In  the  towns  and  cities  of  what   is 


40 

now  West  Virginia  the  same  conditions  existed.  From 
Baltimore  and  Maryland  large  numbers  had  gone  South  to 
engage  in  the  service.  Besides  these  associations  with 
the  Confederate  soldiers  from  Maryland  very  many  of 
whom  came  from  some  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  promi- 
nent families  of  the  State  were  the  business  and  social 
ties  that  had  grown  up  between  the  South  and  Baltimore 
as  the  Southern  metropolis,  so  that  with  few  exceptions 
the  leading  people  of  the  city  were  in  sympathy  with  the 
Southern  cause.  In  many  cases  confiscation  of  the  prop- 
erty of  those  who  had  gone  south  took  place,  confined  of 
course  under  the  Constitution  to  the  life  of  the  party  af- 
fected. In  other  cases  arrests  were  made  under  the  small- 
est pretexts,  all  sorts  of  persecutions  little  and  great  were 
indulged  in  towards  the  Southern  sympathizers,  espionage 
being  one  of  the  numerous  annoyances.  Eelationship 
whether  near  or  remote  seemed  to  make  slight  difference, 
and  it  seems  now  almost  impossible  to  account  for  the  bit- 
terness engendered.  Of  course  material  interests  were 
originally  responsible,  and  no  doubt  the  divergent  views 
over  whether  the  state  should  or  not  secede,  with  the  re- 
sults that  would  affect  such  material  interests  and  the  high 
pitch  to  which  the  contentions  over  the  matter  wrought  up 
the  advocates  pro  or  con  were  the  causes  that  led  to  the 
bitterness  that  existed.  The  Southerners  were  styled 
"secessionists,"  "rebels",  "traitors",  "copperheads", 
with  the  soldiers  however  a  Southern  soldier  was  always 
"Kebel"  or  a  "Johnny  Eeb".  The  favorite  popular  bal- 
lad commenced  something  like  "Wll  hang  Jeff  Davis  on 
a  sour  apple  tree."  In  the  South  on  the  other  hand  there 
was  but  one  name  for  the  Northerner  and  whether  soldier 
or  civilian  he  was  invariably  called  "yankee".  Deep 
down  in  the  Southern  heart  however  there  was  no  recog- 
nition of  a  social  relation  with  neighbors  of  Northern 
sympathies  and  for  some  years  after  the  war  ended  I  knew 
of  instances  of  Southern  women,  who  in  marrying  Union 
army  officers  were  regarded  not  only  as   having  impaired 


50 

their  social  status  but  as  having  done  an  act  to  reflect 
upon  their  own  family  standing.  And  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  in  Maryland,  particularly  in  Baltimore,  there  was  a 
distinct  spirit  manifested  to  seduously  ostracise  socially 
those  who  had  been  active  in  espousing  the  Union  cause 
during  the  war.  And  as  equally  a  generous  welcome  was 
extended  to  all  who  came  from  the  South.  It  seems  almost 
inconceivable  to  those  of  the  present  day  not  aware  of 
the  bitter  antagonism  existing  during  the  war  that  such 
could  ever  indeed  have  exited.  To  illustrate  what  would 
occur  on  a  slightest  pretext :  In  some  way  it  was  sug- 
gested that  a  Confederate  flag  was  harbored  in  our  house. 
The  provost  marshal  sent  a  company  of  soldiers  who  sur- 
rounded the  house,  while  the  Captain  and  a  guard  accom- 
panied by  my  father  searched  every  portion  of  the  prem- 
ises from  the  top  to  the  cellar  with  a  perfectly  fruitless 
result.  Again  three  paroled  Confederate  prisoners  called 
upon  my  father  to  be  extended  some  assistance  pecuniarily. 
This  he  unhesitatingly  extended  to  all  needy  Confederate 
prisoners  who  called  upon  him,  and  while  talking  with 
these  three  word  was  conveyed  to  the  provost  marshal 
that  a  seditious  meeting  was  taking  place  in  his  house, 
resulting  in  a  provost  guard  being  sent  who  placed  my 
father  and  his  visitors  under  arrest,  to  be  quickly  released, 
however,  as  soon  as  the  matter  was  investigated.  The 
smallest  pretext  and  barest  suspicion  of  disloyal  senti- 
ment or  act  led  to  invasion  of  the  sanctity  of  ones  house 
and  an  interference  with  ones  business  or  professional 
duties. 

But  with  all  the  sectional  antagonism,  the  women  of 
Southern  sympathies  in  Northern  communities  wrought 
out  results  that  showed  their  disregard  of  militaryism; 
for  they  were  unsparing  in  their  work  to  help  the  South- 
ern prisoners.  No  prisoners  with  an  acquaintance  of  a 
friend  among  the  women  was  allowed  to  suffer  for  clothes 
or  luxuries  and  to  help  the  large  bodies  of  Southern  pris- 
oners in  Northern  prisons,  sewing  societies  were  formed 


51 

that  met  regularly  at  the  members'  houses  where  all  kinds 
of  clothes  needed  by  the  prisoners  were  made  up.  These 
meetings  which  I  often  attended  were  a  delightful  exper- 
ience. A  vast  number  of  pretty  girls  and  young  married 
women  all  actively  engaged  in  sewing  and  cutting  out, 
exchanging  experiences  and  information  and  each  occasion 
to  be  wound  up  with  light  refreshments. 

A  topic  of  constant  discussion  is  the  effect  of  the  war 
so  far  as  the  negro  is  concerned.  I  have  seen  the  negro 
in  slavery  before  and  during  the  war  and  now  a  freedman 
for  forty  years  since  the  war  closed  and  I  feel  that  I  am 
capable  of  expressing  an  opinion  upon  the  subject.  As 
a  slave  he  was  generally  well  treated,  and  was  generally 
contented  and  happy.  He  was  usually  free  from  care  or 
responsibility,  all  his  wants  being  provided  for  by  his  mas- 
ter. He  had  a  task  to  perform  and  the  performance  of  it 
was  exacted  of  him,  sometimes  this  task  was  exceedingly 
light,  it  was  scarcely  ever  severe.  It  was  natural  he 
should  wish  to  be  able  to  essay  or  not  to  essay  this  task 
as  his  humor  suggested  to  him  and  the  wish  for  this  I 
believe  was  the  principal  incentive  for  freedom  to  most  of 
the  slaves.  Very  many  I  believe  gave  the  matter  of  free- 
dom no  consideration  and  cared  nothing  about  it.  When 
the  close  of  the  war  brought  freedom  to  the  vast  body  of 
those  who  were  slaves  their  reasoning  suggested  to  them 
as  it  did  to  very  many  of  the  less  informed  whites  that 
the  war  had  been  fought  purely  to  free  the  negro.  The 
corollary  to  this  in  the  mind  of  the  negro  was  that  they 
were  the  equal  of  the  whites,  and  immediately  upon  the 
close  of  the  war  the  teaching  inculcated  among  themselves 
with  greatest  assiduity  was  the  matter  of  equality.  Dur- 
ing the  lapse  of  forty  years  however  the  question  of 
equality  has  in  a  measure  worked  itself  out  as  it  always 
does  dependent  upon  personal  and  material  factors. 
When  persons  occupy  grades  of  servants,  labor- 
ers, mechanics,  storekeepers,  merchants  and  pro- 
fessional   men    the     question     of    color    in     that     all 


52 

are  black  will  notpnt  thein  on  au  equality  one 
with  the  other  and  the  question  of  equality  is  not 
helped  by  trying  to  extend  the  equalizing  so  as  to  put  the 
colored  man  whatever  his  condition  in  life  on  a  level  with 
the  white  man  whatever  his  condition.  This  was  a  strug- 
gle so  patent  in  the  case  of  the  freedmen  immediately  af- 
ter the  close  of  the  war  that  was  bound  in  the  course  of 
years  to  disappear  from  the  hopelessness  of  it.  The  re- 
sult is  that  from  my  observation  the  negro  has  measurably 
been  battered  after  the  many  years  that  have  elapsed  since 
the  war,  so  that  now  his  deportment  and  manners  are  bet- 
ter, he  is  more  honest  and  he  has  not  deteriorated  as  a 
worker  and  he  is  getting  nearer  to  the  deportment  he  pos- 
sessed before  his  character  was  disrupted  by  the  harmful 
teachings  of  those  idealists  in  the  New  England  States  who 
professed  before  and  during  the  war  to  be  his  only  true 
friends. 

There  was  one  restriction  upon  the  negro  in  slavery  that 
was  a  great  source  of  trouble  to  him  and  that  was  the  ex- 
istence of  the  law  which  forbade  absence  from  home  after 
dark  except  upon  a  written  pass  furnished  by  the  master 
or  his  agent,  any  member  of  the  family  as  a  quasi  agent, 
even  the  children  could  give  these  passes,  and  I  have  often 
given  such.  Absence  without  such  pass  subjected  the 
slave  to  arrest  and  detention  until  morning  when  a  trial 
took  place  in  the  Mayor's  court,  the  penalty  being  the 
public  whipping  post.  This  was  about  the  only  occasion 
a  slave  in  any  well  ordered  family  was  likely  to  be  visited 
with  a  whipping,  which  was  then  a  legal  penalty  inflicted 
by  public  authority  for  a  violation  of  the  law.  And  such 
whipping  was  very  apt  to  arouse  indignation  on  the  part 
of  the  master  and  certainly  his  family  between  whom  and 
the  slaves  there  always  exited  a  bond  of  affection  as  well 
as  material  interest.  So  far  from  whipping  slaves  by  the 
master's  authority  not  only  did  self  interest  forbid  this, 
but  as  before  indicated  this  was  recognized  as  one  of  the 
acts  of    maltreatment  which    resulted  in   loss   of  social 


status  to  any  family  that  was  known  to  so  deal  with  their 
slaves.  A  tender  regard  for  slaves  was  so  assiduously 
exacted  by  public  sentiment  in  the  South  that  it  was  ac- 
cepted as  a  serious  reflection  to  sell  one.  I  have  frequently 
read  accounts  of  the  awful  slave  pens  and  jails  where 
slaves  being  sold  were  detained  until  a  purchaser  and  new 
master  was  found  all  of  which  accounts  are  purely  mythi- 
cal written  by  dreamers  with  vivid  imaginations  and  no 
actual  experience.  I  have  been  again  and  again  in  these 
houses  of  slave  dealers  where  slaves  remained  pending  a 
sale.  The  last  one  I  visited  was  in  accompanying  my 
father  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  a  cook.  All  of  those 
present,  some  twenty-five  women,  were  called  to  the  large 
front  room  and  they  ranged  themselves  in  line.  Every 
one  was  neatly  dressed  and  showed  in  their  appearance 
and  demeanor  unmistakable  signs  of  kind  treatment  and 
being  well  cared  for.  Thinking  people  reading  such  ac- 
counts must  see  instantly  that  outside  of  any  sentiment  of 
humanity  good  business  policy  required  the  best  treatment 
at  such  places.  The  slaves  were  sent  there  to  be  sold 
and  the  best  price  was  wanted  and  that  price  was  to  be 
obtained  only  when  a  good  impression  was  made  on  the 
purchaser  and  it  was  made  alone  by  the  appearance  of  the 
slave.  To  secure  a  healthful  appearance  and  indications 
of  a  good  disposition  and  temperament  required  good 
treatment,  and  the  disposition  and  temperament  was  so 
carefully  looked  after  by  a  purchaser  as  health  and  ability 
to  work,  for  it  was  recognized  that  most  slaves  came  to 
slave  dealers'  hands  because  the  previous  master  had 
found  some  trouble  on  this  score  of  disposition  or  tem- 
perament this  being  the  single  exception  outside  of  failure 
in  business  when  an  owner  felt  justified  by  public  opinion 
to  make  sale  of  his  slaves. 

The  life  on  a  large  plantation  for  a  negro  slave  was  an 
almost  ideal  life.  Each  plantation  of  from  about  five 
hundred  to  several  thousand  acres  with  its  several  hundred 
slaves  was  a  perfect  community   in  itself.     Every  trade 


54 

and  occupation  necessary  to  the  effective  running  of  the 
plantation  was  represented.  One  of  the  slaves  was  a 
skilled  blacksmith  and  wheelwright,  another  a  competent 
carpenter,  still  another  a  shoemaker  and  so  on  through- 
out the  list  of  utilities.  In  the  order  of  dignity  and  pref- 
erment the  house  servants  came  first.  There  were  plenty 
of  them  in  every  household  and  the  work  assigned  to  each 
was  exceedingly  light,  they  were  dressed  well,  ate  the 
same  food  used  by  the  family,  were  well  trained  both  men- 
tally and  morally,  participated  from  the  ties  of  interest 
that  bound  them  to  the  family  in  its  pleasure  to  a  greater 
extent  than  could  have  been  experienced  by  hired  servants 
and  in  sickness  or  trouble  were  cared  for  with  a  tender- 
ness no  less  than  would  be  shown  to  a  favorite  child. 
Next  in  the  order  of  regard  came  the  coachman,  thegard- 
ner,  the  assistant  overseer,  who  was  always  a  slave;  in- 
deed all  whose  duties  brought  them  more  especially  in 
frequent  contact  with  the  whites  on  the  plantation.  Then 
came  the  field  hands,  both  men  and  women,  and  no  hap- 
pier lot  of  human  beings  in  their  work  could  be  found 
than  were  ordinarily  these  same  people  whatever  might 
be  the  task  to  which  they  were  assigned.  I  have  been 
with  them  in  hoeing  corn,  in  cutting  wheat,  in  threshing 
grain,  in  curing  tobacco,  indeed  in  every  work  which  went 
on  and  I  speak  from  my  own  personal  experience  in  stat- 
ing as  I  do  the  spirit  with  which  they  worked.  Every 
provision  was  made  for  their  well  being,  self  interest  of 
the  master,  independent  of  dictates  of  humanity,  and 
pressure  of  public  opinion  required  this.  The  negro  quart- 
ers were  sufficiently  far  from  the  house  to  permit  of  the 
pleasures  that  appealed  to  the  negro  heart  without  the 
noise  disturbing  the  white  folks.  Each  negro  family 
usually  had  a  cabin,  ample  and  comfortable,  with  a  gar- 
den attached  in  which  was  raised  vegetables  and  the  hours 
of  field  labor  were  such  as  to  leave  ample  time  to  culti- 
vate this  garden.  Rations  of  staple  food  were  served  with 
the  same  regularity  and  provisions  for  health  and  comfort 


00 

as  in  araiy  life.  They  were  supplied  with  ample  clothing. 
Whether  in  health  or  sickness  and  from  birth  to  death 
the  care  of  his  slaves  was  the  first  regard  of  the  slave 
owner,  and  an  exception  to  such  was  not  tolerated  in  the 
community.  The  family  bible  of  the  master's  family  first 
contained  the  births,  deaths  and  marriages  of  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family,  then  in  the  same  bible  followed  exactly 
similar  entries  with  reference  to  his  slaves.  The  members 
of  his  family  became  the  instructors  of  the  negro  chil- 
dren in  Sunday  school  work.  The  adult  negroes  were 
given  ample  opportunity  and  encouraged  to  attend  relig- 
ious meetings.  The  negro  slave  was  indeed  without  a 
care  or  anxiety  for  his  comfort  or  welfare  from  the  time 
of  his  birth  to  the  period  when  he  was  tenderly  laid  away 
in  the  plot  set  aside  on  every  plantation  for  the  negro 
burial  ground. 


<6  %7 

4&  y 


T„is  boe*  *  due  a,  me  WAUTER  ^DAV^BRAW  en 
the  last  date  stamped  under  Date  Due. 
be  renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  l.brary. 


DATE                      RETURf 
DUE 

"~~ 

Form  No  513.               1 
flev.  1/84                      i 

DATE 
DUE 


RETURNED 


■:'■..'■..      ;      '■■''■■■■.'■  •■■■•.    ■■'■'■    ■":■'"■' 

$^?^ 

